Always The Mornings
by HowAreJewDoin
Summary: Something is going on in Vale and all of Beacon is ready to help, but how will the incident affect the students? Arkos shipping along with Bumblebee (best ship) and White Rose. M for some pretty intense fight scenes. No smut/lemon though. Cover image unrelated, I'm just too lazy to find an actual image so I used that.
1. Chapter 1: Starting Off With A Yang

**So, this is my first post on this site. In light of recent events, I have decided to create something in the one way I can. We love you, Monty. Enjoy.**

Yang woke up with a gasp, grasping at the blankets that covered her, their warmth doing nothing to ease the intense shivering that rolled over her sweat covered body in waves. _It's okay, I'm safe. _ She thought to herself, looking the dimly lit room, the sun barely rising. Staring at Ruby the corners of her mouth started to slant upwards, the young girl looking so peaceful as she slept. Her eyes drifted downwards toward Weiss, who to the blonde's surprise was staring at the bottom of the bed that hung precariously above her, eyes wide open.

"Hey, Weiss." Yang whispered, not wanting to wake neither Blake nor Ruby.

"What?" The ice queen responded curtly, annoyed and surprised by Yang's voice so early in the morning.

"Uh…"

"If you're going to talk to me, at least have something to say." Weiss replied, rolling onto her side to face Yang.

"Well, I kind of wanted to talk to you about Ruby."

"Why would I want to talk about her at such an ungodly hour?" Her voice suddenly filled with nervousness as she rolled onto her other side, facing the wall instead of the blonde brawler.

"Well, Ruby has gotten really close to you lately and I haven't really gotten the chance to talk to her much, since you two seem to always be together doing something. I want to know about her life, since I'm her big sister and-" Yang stopped mid sentence in surprise, startled by the light that filled the room, along with a deafening bang.

Her ears ringing she jumped out of bed, snapped awake. All the lights in Beacon had been turned on before she hit the floor, causing her to blink a few times. When her hearing started to return, her blood felt like it had frozen in her veins. The droning of the siren confirming something had happened in town.

"Everyone, get to your lockers! Quick!" Ruby shouted above the cacophony of noises that had filled the room, already fully awake and prepared to react.

Forcing the door open with an urgency that nearly caused her to throw it off the hinges, Yang looked across the hallway and saw Pyrrha with the same expression she had herself, cold dread showing on her face.

"Explosion in Vale, I had just woken up when it happened." Yang yelled across the hallway, straining to hear her response through all of the other students sprinting to their lockers, talking all at once.

"Yeah, Jaune and I were awake too. Uh… Studying." She replied, becoming sheepish and turning away, a slight tint of red coloring her cheeks.

"Gross gross gross." Yang replied over her shoulder, already joining the masses and running to her locker with the rest of the team.

When all of team RWBY had retrieved their weapons, they ran in unison over to the auditorium which was teeming with students. Ozpin was standing the podium, as he cleared his throat and prepared to address everyone.

"Students! Your attention please!" His voice shockingly loud and clear over the mass that swarmed before him. "As I am sure you have surmised, there is currently a-" He paused, interrupted by a chain of explosions in the distance which caused him to raise his voice even more, something the students there did not think possible. "As I was saying. There is a situation in Vale and as hunters and huntresses in training we will need your assistance. Find your teams if you have not already and board the nearest hoverjet together. Be quick about it!"

The moment that he finished speaking the mass of students moved together towards the landing area, many stopping suddenly when they had a clear view of the city close to their school. The night sky seemed to have light up, tracer rounds filling the air as massive airships flew over the city, leaving explosions underneath them as they went. Yang felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Blake, tears beginning to form in her eyes as the symbols on one of the airships became visible in the flames that had engulfed it. The familiar face of a grimm with claw marks behind it prompting Yang to take Blake's hand into her own, comforting the faunus as best as she could.

They were snapped back to reality when they heard a massive crack next to them, followed by one of the airships falling, it's engines burning. All of team RWBY turned in unison, shocked by what they saw. Velvet was laying on the ground, her facial features distorted by a hatred so deep it cause Yang to step back slightly and pause in shock. The rabbit faunus fired again, dropping another airship in the distance. The weapon she was wielding was a rifle, slightly larger than the girl wielding it, the bi-pod near the end of the barrel helping her hold the weapon up. The massive rifle had a blade attached all along the underside of the light brown barrel, except in the foot leading up to the trigger, a magazine the size of Yang's head occupying part of the space, a cream colored grip occupying the other portion. The weapon had no sights, instead a small wire with an eyepatch extending out, covering the girl's right eye with a spot of brown that matched the color of the barrel itself. Judging by the lack of the handbag which Velvet carried around seemingly at all times, the team assumed that this was her weapon. The reason why it had taken her all year now apparent due to it's complexity. With every round the weapon fired, clouds of dust scattered from the ground, moved by the sheer force of the weapon. When Yang looked over at Ruby, the girl seemed to be in heaven, her eyes glazed over and a string of drool coming out from the corner of her wide open mouth. Brought back to reality by the continued explosions in the distance, the team quickly boarded a hoverjet, seeing team CFVY, well, the first half of the team, with them along with JNPR standing together.

"Jaune, are you sure you want to come? You don't have to you know…" Pyrrha said over the growing roar of the engines as the vehicle took off.

"Pyrrha, I do have to come. It would be ridiculous for me not too and I would feel terrible if anything happened to the three of you. I can handle myself." Jaune replied, staring into the redhead's eyes.

Jaune's statement was fairly true, considering the extent to which he had improved since the last time the siren was heard.

"We hot drop in five!" The pilot said, indicating that the area where they were going to be deployed had too much action to the point where it would be impossible to make a proper landing.

**For a first post that didn't seem half bad to me, even though it's pretty short (I'm obviously not biased at all though 3). Let me know what you guys think. I might continue this story later, possibly even today if inspiration hits me again but I'm having some trouble coming up with ideas right now and need a bit of a break.**


	2. Chapter 2: Deployment

**The reaction to the first portion of the story was way better than I expected, especially since it was so short! I would have had this out yesterday but I was suuuuper busy. Enjoy chapter 2!**

When they began their approach to the landing area, Coco started to speak over the headset to the pilot.

"Open the door." She said forcefully, the lenses on her sunglasses turning see through.

With a shake of her handbag, Coco's weapon began to take form for the second time team RWBY had seen, but this being the first time they had the chance to truly view it because of the predicament they were in previously. They were all once again awed by the size of the thing, wondering how she managed to have it fold up so small. Unfortunately the size also had another effect on the already cramped inside of the hoverjet, forcing all of team RWBY, JNPR, and Fox to move together towards the right side of the craft, opposite to where Coco was standing.

As the hoverjet doors opened, the teams were confronted with a site that caused anger to flare in Yang, her eyes losing their lilac color and beginning to tinge red, her hands closing in fists so tight that her nails dug into her skin. Blake had a similar reaction, fists curled up tight and pure hatred on her face. Seeing Ruby's face however, Yang's eyes momentarily tinged towards blue. Ruby's face was emotionless, her hands reaching to the small of her back and partially extended her scythe into it's gun form as she moved next to Coco, also looking out at the devastation that surrounded them. Fox seemed as cold and calculating as ever, and team JNPR simply appeared to shocked to feel any emotions yet. The devastation was so vast it was difficult to believe that one organization was responsible for all of it. Bodies were scattered everywhere, with a handful of Atlesian knights scattered among them, the robotic soldiers in various states of completeness. However, the most shocking part of the view was that none of the human and faunus bodies were in uniform or next to weapons. They were all civilians that looked to have been thrown back from an explosion of a nearby building.

"A fucking hospital. They bombed a fucking hospital!" Yang shouted, her hair seemingly becoming alive, moving with a mind of it's own, and her irises completely red.

After Yang's exclamation there was an explosion of gunfire from a partially intact building across the street from the destroyed hospital, the White Fang having set up an ambush for any rescue workers. Soon after the side of their own method of transport also exploded into gunfire. The steady buzz of Coco's weapon raking paths of destruction all along the building where the soldiers were staying. Ruby's rifle also yelled back it's response, not constant like Coco's, but frequent nonetheless, the building being full of targets. However, both the girls stopped firing for a second as Yang sprinted through the middle, knocking them to the side as she jumped out towards the White Fang infested building, firing her gauntlets behind her in order to pick up as much speed as possible.

"You fuckers!" She screamed, her voice only now audible to the enemy as they stopped firing for a split second as well, although their response being one of shock instead of physical inability.

However, the building once again erupted into gunfire as they realised what was happening and reacted. Yang's vision became filled with red and instead of slowing down she picked up speed, at least until crashing through the wall of the building and finding herself face to face with dozens of masked terrorists.

"Alright, whose first?" She screamed at them as she sprinted towards the nearest person she saw.

Her gauntlets became impossible to track, the combination of explosions coming from their ends, giving the illusion that her punches themselves were creating such results and the sheer speed with which she used them a deadly combination, uppercuts occasionally sending nameless goons through the roof. Soon she was joined by Pyrrha, the two of them making quick work of everyone on the third floor of the previously four floored building. The second the last person in sight fell, the two huntresses in training ran down to the fourth floor, joining Nora and Ren as they finished off the last of the soldiers, then ran down to the first floor together. Rushing around the corner at the bottom of the stairway, Yang nearly who nearly into Jaune's back, the boy too focused on the four White Fang members in front of him, was forced to propel herself above him, flipping and coming down on the leftmost terrorist with her foot, a satisfying crack resonating as he dropped. Seeing his advantage Jaune rushed the two on the right, his shield protecting his sword arm as he swung his weapon, taking down both the grunts. The final standing White Fang member being thrown out of a room and into the hallway in front of the teams on the first floor was accompanied by Blake, Weiss, and Fox exiting together, Fox showing no emotion as usual, Blake and Weiss' faces both burning in anger.

With the building cleared, Yang finally began to calm down, her eye's returning to their lilac color as her hair settled into a more natural state, the golden strands that had been flowing behind her falling down and cascading onto her back. The area that they were in was decimated, but could barely be recognized as a reception area of some sort, a desk in the corner which pointed towards the door an indication of such. Two long corridors extended to the left and right of the front entrance, a staircase directly in front of the main entrance going all the way up to the fourth floor of the building. As Yang peered into the of the nearest rooms that lined the hallway, she spotted the remainder of a computer monitor laying on the floor next to ceiling tiles, large circulars holes forming a jagged line on the outer wall, matching up with the sites of where the bullets came to rest behind them. At this sight Yang let out an appreciative whistle, the power of Coco's self-made weapon astounding.

"Hey blondie, are you alright?" Yang reacted to the voice behind her, raising her gauntlets prepared to engage whoever was talking to her.

She lowered them however when she saw it was just Weiss, the petite girl shrinking back from her own sudden display of aggression.

"Sorry Weiss, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm just kind of on edge." Yang replied, slightly embarrassed at her actions. "I'm fine, I swear. Thank you for asking though."

"Uh, huh. Your sister might buy that but no way am I that much of a dolt." The heiress stated, crossing her arms and looking annoyed.

"Oh my God! Ruby!" Yang shouted, suddenly realizing that she had not yet seen her sister.

"She gave us overwatch, since her scythe is way too big to be of any use indoors." A third voice added as Blake walked into the room, her bow having become slightly torn in the fighting.

"Blake! Your bow!" Yang gasped as she suddenly worried about Coco and Fox discovering her secret, not to mention the rest of the city should she not have a replacement.

"Fuck the bow, people need to see faunus standing up to the White Fang, especially now." She said as she removed the tattered strip of cloth, wiggling her primary set of ears back and forth as they were freed from the confinement. "Hoverjet! Move!" Blake shouted, her ears twitching as her face suddenly changed again.

"Guess our situation might turn pretty Grimm in a second. Eh?" Yang said smiling slightly, resulting in a simultaneous sigh from her two teammates.

Amazing puns aside, Yang ran outside through the destroyed wall, Coco's enthusiasm creating enough destruction for her to simply exit through the room she stood in. The second she ran outside, she found herself looking up into the sky on her back, her chest feeling as if it was burning as black spots began to form, clouding her vision.

"I think they got me." She heard someone say, surprised when she realized that her own lips had made the sound.

All of a sudden, the dots joined together, they formed into solid black, totally covering her vision. She felt as if she was falling through the floor.

**Oh it's getting juicy now, isn't it? Yang's been shot and by a hoverjet no less! Ouch. **

**Hope you enjoyed, leave feedback in a review or a comment (whatever they're called on this site) and always remember: #FuckTheBow!**


	3. Chapter 3: Awakening

**So many views! Glad to see people are enjoying the story still. Now to find out what happens after Yang's incident!**

_Ow_. Yang thought to herself, her first feeling after becoming aware of her surroundings being pain. Her entire chest felt as if someone had a hot needle and was pushing down in sync with the beating of her heart. Trying to breathe was even worse, as she discovered for herself fairly quickly. She attempted a deep breath, her only reward was a jolt of pain that shot up her left side. Slowly opening her eyes, worried that even that might hurt, she took in her surroundings. The walls of the room were aggressively white and although the lighting was dim, served only to accentuate the blonde's headache, an old development she just noticed for the first time . _Great, even more aches and pains._ When she tried to move her arm, she felt a little bit of resistance which prompted her to look at her arm. _An IV? Why would I need one of those?_ She thought, barely able to form a coherent observation as her headache grew in intensity. Once again lifting her eyes to observe her surroundings, she noticed that she was lying down on a bed placed in the corner, a small window above her head that filtered in a minuscule amount of light, the only thing keeping the room from being pitch black. A couple of feet away from her bed, she noticed an occupied chair, a black figure slumped over asleep, not wake because of what seemed to be the early hour. _Why does my chest hurt so much?_ The brawler asked herself, the answer coming when she noticed the extensive bandages wrapped around her. The White Fang! The sudden realization caused her to jump upright, a decision that her battered body did not agree with. The movement caused her to yell out in pain, startling the figure in the chair and waking them from their slumber.

"Yang! What's wrong? I'll call the nurse!" The familiar voice asked with concern, the outline of the bow that always rested on her head visible in the dark.

For the second time, black spots gathered as she fell back into her pillow. _At least it doesn't hurt as much now. _She was barely able to finish the thought before drifting back into the black void of unconsciousness.

When she awoke again, it was at what seemed to be a much more reasonable time. The room was unchanged except for the fact that now it was lit by the natural light that flowed in through the window.

"Yang. Oh my God, you're awake." The same familiar figure from before asked, now more than an outline.

"Hey, Blake?" The blonde wheezed out. "This hurts like hell."

"You're safe now Yang. You're safe here." Blake said, her voice cracking as she finished her sentence.

"Blake! Your bow!" Yang said, more forcefully this time after making a conscious effort to make herself sound better than she felt.

"Yeah, everybody kind of knows now anyways. After you... After you lost consciousness we ran across a group of civilians under attack by the White Fang. I decided to leave my bow off because I hoped it would help keep the public image of faunus from getting any worse. They were scared at first, but saw that I was helping them. News spread pretty quick once everything died down about a girl named Blake with cat ears who rescued a group of people during the attack" She said, her eyes glazing over with tears of relief at Yang being awake.

"Good for you Blake. I'm happy you don't have to hide anymore. I never like the bow anyways." Yang said, forcing out a smile which ended up appearing more like a grimace instead.

When the battered blonde finished her sentence, Blake was unable to contain herself and dropped to her knees, burying her face into the side of hospital bed and sobbing.

"There, there kitty cat. I'll get you some tuna right when I get out." She moved her hand over to pet the faunus' ears, delighting in their soft texture.

"Yang?" She asked, her voice full of concern.

"Blakey?" She responded, copying the other girl's tone.

"I was really worried about you. You were unconscious for a two days until you woke up briefly yesterday morning. They told me that your left lung collapsed and you had multiple broken ribs, along with a broken left shoulder." Blake said, looking up toward the brawler with tears eyes.

"I woke up yesterday? God damnit." The object of her attention replied, annoyed at all the makeup assignments she would be forced to do in Oobleck's class.

The next two days were spent in a similar way, Yang talking to Blake in the mornings and evenings when she did not have classes. Periodically the ice queen herself would visit, showing a not often seen concern for others. In between, the girl found herself incredibly bored, her ability to move freely significantly hindered by her current condition. The third day after she awoke however, she finally had recovered enough to start walking around without too much discomfort, even though she had to take her IV bags with her. Her sudden mobility resulted in a series of adventures around the hallways, when she was not either with Blake or in physical therapy to restore the range of motion in her shoulder. Some of the time she simply wandered, ignoring everyone and listening to the Achieve Men on her scroll. However, the majority of the time she spent talking with other patients. Most of them were there because of the White Fang attack, the damage that had been caused being extensive. There was one patient in particular however who she enjoyed talking to the most.

"Yang!" Her closest friend at the hospital exclaimed, running up to her and carefully giving her a hug.

"Hey Ruby. How is your arm feeling today?" She asked her younger sister.

"It's great! The doctor said that I would only have to be here for another day, even though the bullet didn't go through cleanly, my aura helped me out in terms of being able to avoid having to amputate. Don't worry though, even when I get out I'll still visit every day." She emphasized her recovery by swinging her right arm back and forth, albeit gingerly as to avoid hurting herself.

Yang's anger began to heat up her skin slightly, causing Ruby to step back and look up at her with concern.

"Sorry Rubes, it just makes me so mad when I think about you getting hurt, especially when I couldn't do anything about it." She sighed, letting her shoulders slump downwards as her anger left her.

"It's okay Yang. Weiss has been visiting me a lot whenever you've been with Blake."

At this Yang couldn't resist smiling, the bond the ice queen and her Ruby had formed had become stronger every day.

"Why don't you just ask her out already? You two already spend so much time together." She said, unable to keep a straight face and barely containing her laughter at her sister's response.

"B-but we're teammates Yang! I can't do that!" She replied, her fair skin turning a shade of red that rivaled her cloak.

Seeing the blush was the last straw, causing Yang to laugh.

"Oh my God Rubes, it hurts to laugh but it' so worth it to see your face light up like a Christmas tree." The blonde managed to say between bursts of laughter.

"Yang, stop teasing me." The smaller girl replied, attempting to be angry but ending up bursting into laughter as well, unable to contain herself with her sister laughing so heartily next to her.

The following two days passed by slowly after her sister's departure, the only highlight being Ruby and Blake's joint visits, accompanied by Weiss as well, now that Ruby was free to do as she pleased. Although she appreciated her younger sister and Weiss coming and enjoyed their company, she found herself wishing for the one on one conversations that Blake and her had. The blonde and the faunus having many interesting conversations on faunus rights and other heavier topics, but neither of them felt totally comfortable talking about the more depressing issues with Weiss and Ruby around, the both of them so happy whenever they were around each other. Finally, the day had come when she was to be released. She was given instructions by her doctor to keep taking the pain medication, although she was at the point where she could bear being without their assistance.

"Ready to finally get out of here?" Blake asked while helping Yang with the various items she had been brought while in the hospital.

"Oh God yes." The blonde replied excitedly, finally able to leave the whitewashed hospital walls.

On the way back to their dorms, Blake and Yang's least favorite song had begun to play over the taxi's radio. Thankfully for Yang, she had her scroll and headphones still with her. She reacted as quickly as humanly possible the second she heard the line "Ah ah! You know what it is." Drowning out the ridiculous song with a dose of Achieve Men, blasted directly into her eardrums. Yang looked over to see Blake with a strange expression on her face. One of annoyance, probably at the song that Yang could still faintly hear, despite her best efforts, mixed with a small amount of longing as she stared out the window, oblivious to the blonde's gaze.

**So! Yang is finally out of the hospital and we found out Ruby was injured as well. Do I sense some White Rose and Bumblebee in the future? The song that came on in the taxi was "Black and Yellow" by Wiz Kalifa if you couldn't figure it out. I don't listen to rap at all and actually dislike that song a lot, so don't take that as my musical preference.**

**As always, I hope you enjoyed!**


	4. Chapter 4: Back at last

Chapter 4: Back At Last

**Even more follows and views! Yay! Enjoy.**

The second that the taxi pulled up to the airship station, Yang jumped out, excited to be on her way back to Beacon. While Blake was unloading her various items, a hoverjet zipped by, it had just taken off from one of the many landing pads nearby. Yang's blood ran cold and she dropped to the ground as she heard the sound, ready to fire at any White Fang soldiers in sight as she moved to prepare her gauntlets, surprised by the lack of her weapons when she found nothing on her wrists.

"Yang, what are you doing?" Blake asked, placing a hand on her right shoulder and bringing the blonde back to the present. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just tripped. Sorry." She replied, her voice cracking slightly as her own actions had surprised and embarrassed her.

Blake gave the girl a doubtful glance, but just went back to unloading Yang's belongings. _What are you doing Yang?_ The brawler questioned in her own mind, annoyed at her response to the sudden sound. _Whatever, I just want to get back into my bed and eat some actual food._ She told herself, purchasing a ticket to return to Beacon from the automated vendor in front of her.

"Hey look! It's Blake!" The shout came from across the terminal.

The exclamation caused many around Yang to turn and look at her partner, eyes wide with reverence and respect.

"Yang! Time to leave!" The faunus shouted, gripping the other girl's good arm and dragging her onto the airship.

"What was all that about?" Yang questioned, her expression one of suspicion.

"So, remember when I told you about all those civilians I rescued? One of them was taking video on their scroll and it kind of went viral after they posted it to social media." She replied, her cheeks tingeing red slightly as she turned away and looked out the window. "People are viewing me as a hero. It's ridiculous, it's not like I'm the only person who helped fight. Many did even more than me. The real heroes are the people who were hurt and killed."

Yang smiled and gave the girl a very aggressive hug when she heard the end of her sentence, causing the faunus to jump.

Finally back at Beacon, Yang made a beeline straight for her room, excited to see everyone again. When she opened the door, the room was unusually dark. Then, the lights came on as a yell of "Surprise!" echoed through the room. The remainder of her team jumped up from behind their hiding places and into the room, joined by the entirety of team JNPR as well. Yang reacted quickly, bringing up her fists and moving to activate Ember Celica, once again surprised at the lack of her weapon. She quickly scanned the room and realised that it was only occupied by her friends, the banner of "Welcome home" that hung between Ruby's bunk and her own revealing the purpose of the shouts. _What the hell is wrong with me? _ She asked herself the second time that day. Her thoughts seemed to be racing at a million miles an hour, her heart feeling as if it would beat out of her chest.

"Yang, are you ok?" Ruby asked walking up and looking at her big sister with concern.

"Yeah, Rubes. I'm perfectly fine." The blonde replied, sounding more confident than she felt.

"You are obviously not fine. Come on, let's go down and see the school counselor." Pyrrha said, placing her hand on her back and pushing her gently out the door as they turned around.

The room had become silent, the happy mood lost after Yang's reaction. Replaced with one of worry for Yang.

When they arrived at the counselor's office, Blake and Pyrrha both moved to knock on the door, running into each other.

"I'm sorry, go ahead." Pyrrha apologized to Blake, since the faunus seemed to be the most concerned out of all of them when Yang reacted the way she did. "I'll wait out here and keep Ruby, Weiss, and the rest of my team outside, so you two can have some privacy."

"Uh, actually. Blake, could you stay out here too?" Yang asked, ashamed that she didn't feel comfortable around her partner.

"Of course." She replied, as Yang searched her face for signs of annoyance or anger but found none. Surprised to see instead a concerned smile her teammate's face.

Yang strode up to the door, forcing her to keep an image of confidence even though her insides were a bundle of nerves. She knocked twice with her good arm, forcefully to make sure she was heard but mainly so she didn't seem weaker than she already felt. She started slightly when the door opened and a small young woman stepped out and looked up to her.

"Yang! Hello. I must say, I never expected to see you here." The woman said happily, shocking the blonde by knowing her name.

"Why is that? And how do you know my name?" She asked, annoyed at being recognized on sight.

"Oh, I know all the students by name. It's part of my job! As for the unexpectedness of your visit, you always seemed to be much too proud to ask for help." She replied, cheerily yet bluntly at the same time. "My name is doctor Shannon. What brings you here today?"

"Well, my friends wanted me to come. They were worried about how I was acting after getting out of the hospital."

"Oh, of course. Come on inside and make yourself comfortable. We can talk in privacy there." She said in her ever optimistic, bubbly tone.

Her office was small, but felt cozy instead of cramped. She had a small loveseat pushed against the wall to the left of the door, a tiny end table in the corner where the couch didn't quite extend all the way. The end table had a basket filled with various candies and another basket with various colors and designs of stress balls. The blonde brawler absentmindedly snatched one of the balls up into her hand and sat on the end of the couch, squeezing the small purple object repeatedly. Directly across from her Doctor Shannon took a seat on a comfortable looking office chair, which she pulled up to her desk and turned the computer in front of her to sleep mode.

"Now that you're comfortable, what is on your mind? Know that everything you say in this room will stay here, unless of course you are a threat to yourself or others, or you share it with someone yourself." The doctor asked, respectfully waiting for an answer.

"Well, my friends think that I've been acting odd ever since I was discharged." She said after waiting a few seconds.

"And how have you been acting that struck them as odd?"

"Well, I dropped to the floor when I heard a hoverjet fly over and I was ready to punch anyone who ran at me when they staged a surprise party for me in our dorm." She said, nervously looking down at her hands and continuing to play with the stress ball. "I've also been having a lot of nightmares recently, but those my teammates don't know about."

"What have those nightmares been about?" The counselor asked respectfully.

"Well, mostly about the White Fang attack that happened recently. I got hurt pretty bad and so did my younger sister." Her eyes never moved up from the object in her hands.

"How did you two get hurt?" The doctor asked as she leant forward slightly in her chair.

"A White Fang hoverjet shot me twice. Once in the left shoulder and once in the left lung." She shivered at the memory, a slight burning sensation spreading out from her newly acquired scars as her heart began to beat faster. "My sister got shot by a different group in the arm after I had passed out. She almost had to have it amputated."

"Is this the first time you have been seriously injured like this?" Shannon asked, genuine concern in her voice.

Yang simply nodded, having a hard time finding the strength to speak.

"Well, it seems to me that you have some PTSD from the event and that it is serious enough to be impacting your daily life. I'm going to refer you to a specialist for this sort of thing and he will help you to get through this and learn how to cope." She stood as she finished her sentence, scribbling furiously on a small piece of paper before handing it over to Yang. "Please visit him as soon as you can."

It was another few minutes before Yang had collected herself enough to be able walk out. When she exited she was met by the rest of her team and team JNPR, all of them with worried expressions on their faces.

"How did it go?" Blake asked, stepping forward and giving the blonde a delicate hug.

"Good." She said, even though she was still a rollercoaster of emotion inside.

Both teams relaxed visibly at her answer. Everyone except for Blake. _Damn her perceptiveness._ She thought to herself as the faunus raised a single eyebrow at her reply. The girl's expression quickly changed to surprise, then annoyance however at Yang's hands. Both of which had moved up and massaged her exposed ears.

"Not in public." The girl whispered into her ear as she batted the brawler's hands away and disengaged from the hug.

Yang's only response was a devilish grin and a lunge towards her ears for a second time.

**Blake is just too cute! Even Yang cannot resist the beauty that are her ears.**

**Rate, follow, review. Yada yada yada, you know the drill. **


	5. Chapter 5: Always The Morning

"Ruby!" Yang screeched, bursting out of bed covered in sweat, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Her exclamation woke her three team members.

"Yang? What are the fuck are you doing?" Weiss said, loudly but not quite yelling. "The sun hasn't even risen yet."

The entire team closed their eyes and groaned in unison, Ruby having just turned on the lights.

"Yang, are you okay?" Her younger sister asked, concern all over her face.

"Fine Rubes, I just had a bad dream is all."

Blake dropped down from the top bunk, landing lightly on her feet, which made almost no sound.

"Yang, can we talk outside?" The faunus asked. Her face just as worried as Ruby's.

"Please do." Weiss interjected, still angry about being woken up.

"Want to tell me what that was all about?" Blake asked once they were in the hallway outside the door.

Instead of replying, Yang fell forward into her teammate, sobbing uncontrollably as the other girl held her.

"It's alright Yang. Tell me when you're ready." She choked out, her voice unstable at seeing her normally confident friend break down.

Five minutes passed with Yang sobbing into Blake's arms, the faunus simply caressing the blonde's treasured hair.

"I had a nightmare about Ruby." Yang managed to say through the onslaught of tears. "I was in the hospital again and everything exploded. I sprinted down the hallway, but I was barely moving. I saw Ruby at the end, cornered by flames. Then the fire spread and it-." Yang broke down into tears once again, unable to finish her sentence.

"Ruby is safe now Yang. No one is going to hurt her." She said as she nuzzled her cat ears into Yang's face in an attempt to make her feel better.

Her reward was Yang looking her in the eye and forcing out an empty smile.

"Did Doctor Shannon say anything about you going to see a specialist?" _She figured it out_. A panicked yang thought to herself.

"Yeah... She said that she thinks I have PTSD."

Blake nodded, her theory having been proven correct.

"Let's go back in." Yang said, drying her eyes with her hand and attempting to regain control of her voice.

When they opened the door to the room, they saw Weiss and Ruby huddle together on Weiss' bed, the girl in red crying softly into the heiresses' arms. When she heard the door open, Ruby jumped up and ran straight into Yang, hugging her forcefully and causing the older girl to grunt in surprise.

"Sorry. I just to really worried about you and I could hear you crying. And then Weiss got worried about you too, when she stopped being mad about you waking her up that is. I'm rambling aren't I? Sorry." The words that came out of the girl's mouth were like a flood, washing over Yang and making her feel even more guilty about the whole situation.

"Sorry Ruby, I didn't mean to scare you like that." She hugged her back tightly, taking away the shorter girl's ability to breathe comfortably.

"Let's all get back to bed. We can talk about this at a more reasonable time. It's 3 A.M. I checked." The heiress stated, interrupting the two sisters.

"Agreed this is more than enough excitement for so early in the morning. I'll take the top bunk again Yang, you can stay in my bed." Blake said, still concerned about the blonde.

Yang's response was to turn off the lights and climb back into Blake's bed, comforting herself with the familiar smell that surrounded her. She began to cry again, silently this time. When the sound of even breathing finally filled the room, sobs began to wrack her body, even though she stayed quite apart from the occasional gasp, shudders that rolled through her body. She was slightly surprised when a dark shape dropped in front of her and climbed into bed, joining her and holding her tightly as she cried.

"I'll stay here all night Yang. You don't need to worry about anything now." Blake said, her eyes reflective in the dark.

Yang buried her face into her partner's neck and continued to cry, clinging to her anchor in an roiling sea of emotion. Her sobs quickly subsided to the occasional sniffle and eventually those stopped as well when sleep overtook her.

When Yang awoke later that morning, she attempted to move her right arm but found she was unable to. When she opened her eyes she found ,to her surprise, Blake's face directly in front of her. The faunus' features were lit by the rising sun, making them look even softer than normal. _She looks so kissable right now._ Yang thought, before stopping herself. _Kissable? What the hell? Why would I think that._ Even as she mentally reprimanded herself however, she found her face drawing closer to Blake's, her eyes focusing on the soft lips of her friend. _Exactly, my friend. It's Blake that were talking about here, not some random girl._ Yang pulled away suddenly when Blake's eyes fluttered open, causing the blonde to blush slightly at her predicament. Thankfully the girl in front of her was still tired and did not notice the sudden motion along with the color of Yang's cheeks.

"Morning." The girl in front of her whispered drowsily, not one to wake up quickly.

"Morning." The blonde replied, her voice scratchy because of the activity earlier that morning.

"Sleep well?" Asked Blake as she stood up and stretched, Yang admiring her backside while she was doing so.

"Yeah, no more bad dreams." _What the hell are you doing Yang? Blake is your friend, stop staring at her ass._

"That's good I think the ice queen would have frozen you solid if you woke her up so early again."

"That wouldn't be very Weiss of her." She said, a Cheshire grin spread across her face, which was met quickly by a pillow from across the room.

"Do you really have to start so early?" An unseen Ruby complained, groaning as she sat up on the edge of her bed.

"I like to start my mornings off with a Yang." Another pillow made a beeline for her face, knocking her backwards with the force of the throw.

"I' going to go get dressed, you two have fun." Blake said, attempting to hide her smile but failing miserably.

As soon as the Faunus had left the room, Yang pulled out her scroll and plugged her headphones in. She hopped onto the Internet and searched for "Faunus saves civilians during white fang attack" and she almost immediately found the video she was looking for. Hitting play, she was greeted by a block of text that warned of the graphic content the video contained. She watched intently as Blake's image ran into frame as she ran backwards through a partially collapsed doorway. Gambol Shroud in her hand unleashing a steady flow of bullets.

"Everybody, take cover!" She yelled, her voice full of rage and her face frightening to look at.

Yang gasped in surprise as Blake fell onto the ground, a spray of blood coming from her leg. The girl stood back up quickly however, or at least appeared to, the camera having been dropped when she was hit and picked back up. _She never told me she got shot._ Yang thought to herself, understanding the girl's reluctance to share. As the video continued, the scroll camera zoomed in on Blake's face, then panned up to centere her faunus features in the middle of the frame. Yang was once again struck by how serious she looked, her eyes burning in hatred and her face distorted in a deep scowl. The video cut away suddenly to a shot of the field that was in front of the building, causing Yang to gasp again. There had to be at least fifty white Fang surrounding the building, firing at both Blake and the hoverjet Ruby and Coco occupied. The blonde suddenly realized that team JNPR was nowhere to be found, their attentions assumedly directed elsewhere. As soon as the camera focused on the hoverjet that was circling, a small red figure jerked to the right and then fell down, her scream barely audible above the gunfire. The sound forced Yang to pause the video briefly in order to bring her emotions back under control and stop the tears that welled up in her eyes.

"Weiss! Go with Ruby. I have this under control!" Blake shouted offscreen, right before the camera zipped back to her.

Weiss stood in her dirtied white dress next to Blake and opened her mouth to protest, but closed it once she saw Blake's determine expression.

"Be careful Blake, we'll come back as soon as we can." Weiss said, calling to the hoverjet pilot and launching herself across the sky with a glyph.

The camera followed Weiss all the way into the hoverjet, snapping back to Blake when Weiss had boarded. _What the hell is she doing!_ Yang screamed internally. Blake had ran out into the field and started to engage the terrorists in close combat, blood and bodies following her as she moved through the crowd. The White Fang were trying desperately to retaliate, but the only things that they hit were either Blake's clones or each other, so they gave up on trying to shoot her and instead pulled out knives. _Bad move._ Yang thought as she saw them struggle to hit even the shadow clones left behind. In a few minutes, there were only around two dozen White Fang left, and they had all either surrendered or had begun to run away. The ones running away quickly wished they had simply surrendered peacefully as Blake calmly shot each one of them in the leg, bringing them to the ground. The video then cut to text which read: "Thank you to the young hunters and huntresses who fight for us every day. In particular to the faunus Blake, who stood up to her own kind in order to protect a group of people she never met. I owe my life to her and so do many of my friends." When the video ended, Yang dropped her scroll down onto her pillow. She looked at her hands and saw them shaking viscously. She put them together in an effort to force them to stop moving, however she only partially succeeded.

"I really wish you hadn't watched that." The voice made her jump as she suddenly became aware of Blake's presence next to her.

"Blake, what the hell were you thinking? Were you trying to get yourself killed?" The brawler asked angrily

The other girl shrugged in reply as she sat down on the bed next to her friend.

"You looked really bad Yang. I didn't-" She paused to choke down a sob. "I didn't know if you were going to make it and I don't want to live in a world without you. I got a little carried away, I apologize."

"Why didn't you tell me that you got shot?" Yang place sat next to Blake on the edge of the bed and took the girl's hand into her own.

"It didn't seem important and it didn't even come close to what you went through." She replied, looking down at her feet and placing her other hand on top of the blonde's, which already covered her right hand.

The gesture sent a small shiver through Yang and caused butterflies to fly about in her stomach, but she ignored the feeling and focused on Blake's words instead.

"Just because I had it worse doesn't make what you went through any less real." She looked into the golden orbs that were glossing over with tears. "You can talk to me about anything. We're partners kitty cat."

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry for not telling you." The faunus replied, choking down another sob.

Yang spread her arms as she offered a hug to Blake, who accepted immediately, falling into her arms. The blonde slowly caressed the Faunus' ears, eliciting a low purring noise that reverberated through the room.

"Oh my god! Blakey, you purr? That's so purrfect! It opens up so many opportunities for _cat_calls."

"I will end you." Blake said, her voice muffled since her face was buried in the side of the Yang's neck.

The vibration and warmth of her breath sent shivers down Yang's body, making her heart skip a beat and then try desperately to make up for it by increasing in speed. _Why did I react like that?_ She asked herself. Annoyed that Blake was having this effect on her.

"Cold?" The object of the brawler's attentioned asked. "I'll warm you up."

Blake's tighter embrace served to warm her up, but only in her cheeks.

**So, Yang had a lot of stuff happen to her in this chapter. Will she act on her new found feelings for Blake? How will Blake react? Why am I asking questions only I truly know the answer to? Because I'm an evil bastard, that's why.**


	6. Chapter 6: An Unfortunate Accident

**Enjoy!**

"Miss Xiao Long! Perhaps you could inform the class to the answer." Glynda asked, her eyes narrowing as she glared at the recently awoken girl.

"Uh... Is the answer to punch what's in front of you really hard? That usually works for me." The brawler said, thinking quickly and smiling devilishly.

"Very funny. See me after class." Glynda retorted, returning to her lesson.

The rest of the session seemed to drag on at a snails pace, the lecture about various techniques boring Yang to no end. Finally, after what seemed like hours of torture, Yang's favorite part of the class had arrived.

"Now, I will be calling two of you down at random to spar against one another. Please be prepared if your name is called." Glynda said matter of factly. "It appears the two students who have been chosen are Yang and Pyrrha."

At the sound of her name being called, Yang jumped to her feet. An exclamation of "Yes!" escaping her lips automatically. Pyrrha appeared much less excited however, looking at the blonde with concern. The brawler did not even give the redhead a second glance, flinging herself over the walls of the arena and earning a roll of the eyes from her teacher.

"Are you both ready?" Glynda questioned, seemingly bored as she already had her mind set on the victor, along with most of the class. "Begin!"

The second that she had finished her sentence, Yang propelled herself forward. Firing behind her in order to gain speed. Then, she was looking down, Pyrrha underneath her.

"Yang! Control yourself!" The angry yell that came with the blonde finding herself thrown into the wall of the arena. "Class dismissed. You and I need to have a serious talk miss Xia Long."

Yang looked over to see Pyrrha stand and dust herself off, looking fearfully towards the brawler as she held her left shoulder with her right hand. What _did I just do?_ She asked herself, Pyrrha not being the kind of person to be afraid of anyone.

"What happened?" She asked, standing up and almost falling back down as a wave of nausea washed over her.

"Well, you nearly ripped off Miss Nikos' arm." Glynda's intensity causing Yang to back up a few steps and press herself into the wall.

"I don't remember anything. I don't know what happened to me, I'm sorry." She choked out, slumping down against the wall and sliding to the floor.

She fought to keep the tears that were forming from falling, her eyes burning at the effort. _I would never hurt Pyrrha. She's my friend. Besides, it's not like I would be able to anyways._

"Glynda, I will handle this." The voice caused Yang to look up as Ozpin stepped into the room.

"But sir, she-!" Glynda stammered in defiance, but Ozpin lifted a hand to silence her.

"I am aware of the situation. Normally I would allow you to handle this yourself, but these are far from normal circumstances." He said, smiling towards Yang.

Glynda stormed out, annoyed at the lack of control over her own classroom.

"So Yang. Why don't you tell me what you remember?" Ozpin sipped from his mug calmly.

"Glynda yelled 'Begin' and then I opened the way I normally do. Then, I was thrown against the wall and Pyrrha looked like she was hurt." Yang finished, no longer able to contain her tears as drops began to fall onto the floor.

"It's alright. You aren't in trouble and Miss Nikos will be fine."

Yang sniffled at his reassurances and wiped her eyes with her palms.

"What did I do?" She asked, standing up slowly this time, still feeling queasy.

"Would you like me to show you?" The taller man asked, offering a hand to assist the blonde in standing.

"Yes please."

After fiddling with his scroll for a few moments, Ozpin handed her the device. Yang watched intently as the footage of her fight was displayed. Her interest quickly turned to shock as she watched herself assault Pyrrha, a blank expression on her face as she forced back the surprised redhead. Her assault picked up speed as the other girl's reactions began to slow. Finally a punch connected, everyone in the room was surprised at Pyrrha actually having been touched, suddenly becoming more interested in the fight. Everyone except Yang. She followed up with an uppercut to her jaw, transitioning into two quick jabs into the girl's stomach, which caused her to double over. Yang did not stop there, her onscreen self brought a foot down onto her opponents back, forcing Pyrrha her to the ground. Glynda raised a hand signaling the end of the fight, but it was ignored as the blonde grabbed the downed girl's left arm and pulled, causing Pyrrha's face to distort in pain. Finally Glynda intervened, throwing Yang into the far wall. _I did that. Me. Why would I do that?_

"Where is Pyrrha now?" She pleaded, desperate to make sure the girl was safe.

"The infirmary I would imagine, although you may want to wait a few moments."

"Yeah, alright."

Yang began her walk to the infirmary, a route she knew well. She moved slowly, her eyes staring at the ground as she shuffled along.

"Yang! Are you alright?" The familiar voice caused her eyes to fill again, however she was able to hold back tears this time.

"I don't know, Blake. Where is everybody else?"

"I sent them away. I figured you wouldn't want to have to deal with anyone." The girl tenderly brushed a strand of hair back into place and out of Yang's face.

"Then why did you stay?" The blonde snapped. "Maybe I do want to be alone!"

"Yang..." The faunus drew back, startled by her sudden outburst.

"I just need to be alone right now. I'm sorry." Yang deflated, her shoulders slumping forward as she lost all desire to see Pyrrha.

"I understand. Come back to the dorm when you're ready." Blake made her best effort to hide the look of hurt on her face, one that would have succeeded if Yang had not known her so well.

Sprinting the other direction, Yang ran towards the landing area, intent on catching an airship into Vale. She barely made it in time to catch the last trip for an hour, sprinting onboard moments before the door closed. She glanced at the clock and saw that it read 3:30. The brawler decided to look for a hotel room. She didn't feel ready to confront her team just yet.

When the airship finally landed, Yang stepped off and began to search for somewhere she could stay the night. She still flinched every time a Bullhead flew past, but she was able to keep herself under control with effort. _Maybe I should go see the doctor that the counselor recommended. _She thought to herself while holding the small piece of paper in her hand. She finally forced herself to look at it and read the name. Dr. Martin was scribbled on the small slip, along with the address of his offices and his scroll number. Yang brought out her own scroll and began to dial.

"Hello, this is the Vale Institute for Mental Health. How may I help you today?" Asked the robotic voice on the other end of the line.

"Uh... Hi. My name is Yang Xiao Long and I would like to make an appointment with Doctor Martin please." She responded nervously, never having done this kind of thing before.

"We've been expecting your call. Fortunately Doctor Martin has a slot open in one hour. If you would be able to come in, we would love to assist you however we can."

"Do I need to work out payment or insurance or anything?" Yang questioned, worried about whether or not she could afford the sessions.

"We have already taken care of such things with your combat school. An anonymous benefactor has already payed for any services required."

"Oh. Uh… Tell them I said thanks?" She replied, perplexed as to who the mysterious person could be. "Anyways, I'll be there in an hour. Thank you for your help."

"It has been my pleasure Miss Xiao Long." The secretary stated before hanging up, no doubt to process another call.

_Great. Now I just need to find this place._ She said to herself, looking around nervously at the crowded street.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." The blonde whispered under her breath as she raced down the street towards the building in front of her, it having been an hour since she called.

She burst through the door, surprising the short man who stood in the lobby.

"Are you by chance Miss Xiao Long?" The spectacled man said, holding out his hand and looking like he already knew the answer.

"Yeah, sorry. I had some trouble finding the building." Panting, she reached out her hand and gave the man a firm handshake.

"Well, I know your name but you don't yet know mine! That just won't do. I am Doctor Martin. Feel free to call me whatever you like however, I have never been one for titles. I believe we had an appointment together for right about now. Please follow me Miss Xiao Long."

"Go ahead and call me Yang." She was beginning to feel uncomfortable at the amount of formality and just wanted to get this whole ordeal over with. "Mind if I call you Martin? I've never really been a fan of the whole title thing either."

Martin's response was to give Yang a warm smile. The kind that made you feel instantly at home. It easily reached his eyes, slanting them slightly and adding to the feeling of friendliness he exuded. He motioned for Yang to follow him and proceeded to walk down the hallway next to the reception area. He turned left at the third door and walked into the room. Inside were two comfortable looking leather chairs and a leather loveseat. Much like in the school counselor's office there was a small end table with a basket of various stress balls next to the couch. A small bookshelf contained various books, all of them seemingly the least interesting things in the world as far as Yang was concerned. They were almost all on PTSD and depression, probably containing studies and results of said studies.

"So Yang, my friend at Beacon told me that you are struggling with some symptoms of PTSD. Is that correct?" He asked as he sat in one of the leather chairs

"Yeah. Do you know what I said to her?" Her only answer was a nod and another one of his warm smiles. "Alright, so I don't have to describe all that again. Well, there have been a few other incidents today."

"I'm surprised that you are able to tell me all this. These incidents tend to be very embarrassing for those involved. I applaud your strength, Yang." He smiled again. _His cheeks must hurt like hell if he smiles like that all day._

"Thanks. So, I had a nightmare around three in the morning and I woke the rest of my team up. My partner, Blake, was able to figure out that I had PTSD and she was really worried about me. My sister seemed kind of shaken up by it too." At the mention of Ruby he raised his eyebrows, but waited for me to finish talking before saying anything. "My nightmare was about my sister. I was back in the hospital where I was treated and she was there too. Everything exploded and… And she died right in front of me while I could do was watch."

"You mentioned your sister. Is she on your team?"

"Yeah, she's our leader." Yang answered somewhat reluctantly.

"Your teammate, Blake, mentioned in the debrief that you saw a destroyed hospital and a large amount of civilian casualties." Yang shivered as she attempted to push the image out of her head. "Do you think that might be why you had a dream where you were back in the hospital?"

"Maybe. I don't know." Yang fidgeted with her hands and looked down at her feet.

"The report also mentions that your sister was hospitalized and underwent care at the same place you did." Yang nodded. "Were you already unconscious when your younger sister was hurt?" Yang nodded once more. She shivered again, recalling Ruby's scream from the video.

"I felt useless when I found out. I've always been the one to be there for her. If she was being picked on at school, I made sure that no one touched her."

"Do you think this dream fed off of that feeling of helplessness?" Another nod from Yang, who decided against telling the doctor about Blake's efforts to make her feel better, not yet comfortable enough to disclose every detail.

"I also had an incident about an hour and a half ago, while sparring with a friend." Yang felt as if she was choking on her own words. "I blacked out when we fought and when I came to I had gone a little… Overboard."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I watched the video of our fight after. It was terrifying. The worst part was that I didn't remember any of it. Nothing past our instructor telling us to start. I didn't just win, I crushed her. She's the best fighter at the school and I just pounded her straight into the ground." Martin's face showed what seemed to be recognition for a split second, but his expression once again went to one not unlike a caring father.

"Do you think a mediation session would be beneficial for the two of you?"

"No, I don't think that will be necessary, I would rather work it out between the two of us. Thank you for the offer though."

"Of course. Well, let's figure out what your triggers are. What have you reacted to?"

"Well…" Yang launched into a description of her past episodes, the small man listening intently to every detail and taking notes.

"Thank you for coming in today Yang. I would like to see you this time next week if possible. We can begin work on some coping strategies and figure something out." The doctor rose and offered his hand, which Yang shook.

"Thank you. Really. It felt good to talk about all this with someone who can help." Yang said as she pulled out her scroll and marked down the time for next week.

"I am glad that I could help." The man gave her another smile. "Stay safe." _His cheeks definitely get sore._

When Yang walked out the front door she felt much more relaxed than she had when she entered. The worry about her first real therapy session gone along with her anxiousness about talking to Pyrrha. _Now to find somewhere to sleep._ Yang said, not yet ready to return to her team.

**I've been in my fair share therapist offices and every single one had at least one bookshelf full of psychology books. As always let me know what you guys think!**


	7. Chapter 7: Hooked on a Feline

After she had closed and locked the door, Yang collapsed onto the hotel bed. She felt exhausted from all the stress that the past couple of days held. Closing her eyes, the blonde fell asleep almost immediately, despite the early hour. She was woken from her sleep by a knock on the door. Annoyed, she looked at the time. It had only been a few minutes since she had fallen asleep, the clock reading 5:45 PM. God damnit, I thought it told them to not disturb me. She thought to herself.

"What the hell do you want?" The blonde asked, as she threw open the door and opened her eyes halfway. She slammed the door shut as soon as she recognized who it was.

"I want to talk." Yelled Pyrrha, raising her voice so Yang could hear her.

"Like hell you do." She yelled back.

"I forgive you for what happened earlier. You obviously weren't yourself." The annoyance in her tone was clear as she tired of yelling back and forth. "Yang, open the door."

"How did you find me?" The brawler asked when she opened the hotel door. She motioned for Pyrrha to come in.

"I was out with my- With a friend for dinner." She stammered slightly, a tinge of red tinting her cheeks.

"So, where's Jaune now?" Yang teased, smiling despite herself.

"He's waiting outsi- Wait, how did you know it was Jaune?" Pyrrha looked mortified, her face bright red.

"Just a hunch." The blonde winked and began to laugh at the other girl's reaction. Pyrrha broke into a smile and giggled.

"So, about why I'm here." The warrior became serious again. "Do you know what happened today? I'm not mad. I've just never seen you like that."

"I'm not really sure." Yang let herself fall backwards onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. "I don't remember anything about it. I watched the video that Ozpin showed me. It was terrifying to see myself like that."

"It was definitely an experience I would not like to repeat." Yang pushed herself upright before she continued and looked Pyrrha in the eye.

"Pyrrha, I'm really sorry about what happened. I feel horrible thing. I'm going to ask Ozpin if I can take some time off from sparring for the moment. Thank god it was you who I fought and not someone like Jaune. No offense, but you are way better than him and he probably would have gotten hurt pretty bad."

"Yang, it's alright. I won't say I understand, because I don't, but getting hurt like that would have messed with anyone's head. Honestly, I think you're handling it really well." Yang smiled slightly at the compliment.

"Thanks Pyrrha. You're a great friend." The blonde said before nearly crushing the other girl in a bear hug.

"I'm glad you feel that way, but please let go." The redhead croaked out, crushed by the strong arms of the brawler.

"Sorry." She grinned, not feeling any remorse at all. A knock on the door caused both girls to turn towards the entrance.

"Looks like my friend arrived!" Pyrrha said excitedly as she jumped up from the side of the bed. "Yang, why don't you go and answer the door. No peeking." The girl's Cheshire smile worried Yang as she wondered who it could be.

Somewhat reluctantly she moved towards the door and flung it open, hoping to surprise whoever was on the other side as a small action of revenge. When the door was fully open, a blur of black flew into her and embraced her with even more strength than she had hugged Pyrrha.

"Blake, I can't breathe." She wheezed out.

"Sorry, I was just really worried." The Faunus stepped back and released the girl in front of her. She was distracted however, and that presented the perfect opportunity for payback.

"No! Not the ears!" She squirmed as Yang crushed her in return, but with the added effect of tickling her exposed ears with her left hand.

"I am so glad you got rid of that bow." She smells so nice. The brawler giggled and backed away.

"I thought you two might want to see each other and so I sent a message on my scroll." Yang blushed lightly as she was reminded that Blake and herself were not the only two people in the room.

"Thanks again Pyrrha. I don't want to be rude, but I would like to spend some time alone with Blake." The blonde's voice came out weaker than she intended.

"Of course." The redhead smiled and embraced Yang once more before walking out of the room. When she turned around to close the door, she gave Yang a wink which was enough to cause the blonde's face to flush.

"So, did you and Pyrrha work everything out?" The faunus' lips were slanted upward slightly, as if she had noticed their little exchange.

Being in such close proximity to Blake, Yang felt way more nervous than she had in a long time. Even with other people who she was attracted to she never felt nervous, always confident and sure of herself. With Blake it was different. She felt as if every single move she made was being analyzed. Every drop of sweat taken in by her perceptive golden orbs.

"Yang?"

"Sorry, I spaced out for a second. We worked everything out. Pyrrha was really understanding about what happened. I'm just glad it was her and not Jaune for instance. Who knows what could have happened before Glynda stopped me."

"I would say take a break for a little while. Avoid sparring until you feel up to it again." The way her ears twitch whenever they hear something is so adorable.

"Yeah, I'm planning on asking Ozpin if I can sit out for a while. I think he'll understand." Yang sat back down on the bed. "Well, I'm really tired. I think I'm going to go to sleep. I don't really feel up to talking to Ruby or Weiss yet so I'm just gonna crash here."

"Alright, I'll let you sleep. Come back tomorrow though, Ruby is worried." Disappointment crossed her face but Yang almost didn't notice since it was quickly hidden.

"Blake, wait." Are you seriously about to ask this? "Umm... Do you think you could stay here? To help keep the nightmares away?" Her heart felt as if it was pounding out of her chest and she was almost positive that the Faunus would notice with her acute sense of hearing.

"I would love to Yang." Blake broke into a smile and motioned for the blonde to move over to the other side of the bed.

Yang laid down and moved over in order to give the Faunus some room. The girl laid down beside her and immediately wrapped up the blonde in her arms and moved her head to rest on her chest. Yang was surprised to hear how fast the seemingly calm ninja's heart was beating. Quickly she slipped into sleep, comforted by the presence that was next to her and comforted by her friend's aroma.

Yang groaned as she opened her eyes. Her heart was racing and she was covered in sweat due to another nightmare. She vaguely recalled being forced to watch Ruby be killed, a nightmare that was nothing new to her. The hotel room was lit by the television that sat in front of the bed. Blake must have fallen asleep watching. Yang stumbled drowsily over to the bathroom and turned on the tap, splashing ice cold water on her face. She glanced at the clock in the bedroom which read 9:45. I really shouldn't go to sleep so early. Yang dried off her face and slipped back underneath the covers.

"Another nightmare?" The question startled her, as she had expected Blake to be asleep.

"Yeah. Did I wake you up?"

"Don't worry about it. I fell asleep like twenty minutes ago anyways." The faunus turned off the television then wrapped her arms around the brawler, pulling her closer.

"Hey, Blake? Thanks for doing this." Yang looked into the reflective eyes that looked right back.

"It's no big deal, anyone would do this kind of thing for their friend." Blake sounded flustered but it was difficult to tell in the dark. Fuck it. Yang thought as she leaned forward.

Their lips made contact, which elicited an exclamation of surprise from the faunus, yet she didn't turn away. Blake grabbed the back of the blonde's head, pushing her deeper into the kiss. Suddenly the faunus drew back, pushing the brawler away. Great job Yang. Now you've really done it.

"I'm sorry Blake. I wasn't thinking and… I thought you might have feelings for me and I kind of just went for it." Yang choked back tears while trying to keep her voice from cracking.

"Yang. I do care about you, but I want to make sure that you care about me. You're having a rough time right now and I don't want to take advantage of that." The blonde breathed a sigh of relief.

"These feelings aren't new Blake. I guess what pushed me to finally do something was what happened. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. No one does."

"Ok, I just want to make sure that you actually want this and it's not just because you feel like you need companionship."

"Alright. I'm going to go back to sleep."

"Yeah, me too. Don't try anything." Blake put her back to the blonde, who turned around as well.

"Hopefully I dream about you." Yang muttered to herself.

"Maybe then you won't wake me up in the middle of the night." Blake laughed when Yang pulled the covers over her head.

Sorry that this chapter was not up a little late. I've been having a hard time coming up with ideas and haven't really been inspired to write anything. But, I got the chapter done and hopefully you guys like it.


	8. Chapter 8: Poor Construction

Yang opened her eyes slowly as moved around the softly lit room. Directly in front of her was a mess of black hair with two adorable cat ears on top. Yang quickly removed her arm from the waist of the girl in front of her and moved the leg that had been draped over the two of Blake's so that she could exit the bed.

"Even in your sleep you can't seem to stay away from me." The faunus teased.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to." Yang replied sheepishly, embarrassed that her partner had found out.

"It's alright. You were asleep when you did it and I didn't want to wake you up." Blake sat up and yawned, running her hands through her hair and throwing it away from her face.

"How long did you stay up?" Yang worried that her friend had slept poorly because of her outburst earlier.

"It woke me up, just like you did a moment ago. I'm a light sleeper. Don't worry about it." Blake walked into the bathroom and turned on shower. "I'm showering first, since you were the one who dragged me out here."

Yang grunted in annoyance but didn't protest and instead sat down on the bed and turned on the TV in front of her. Lisa Lavender was reporting on some missing children and the blonde only half paid attention. The time on the news read 4 A.M which made her feel bad about waking Blake so early. After what seemed like an eternity for Yang, the shower turned off. She stood up and waited impatiently for the faunus to exit. The door to the bathroom opened and she darted inside, she nearly ran into Blake in her rush to clean herself and her hair.

"I'll be getting breakfast. Feel free to join me whenever you get done."

"You got it kitty cat." Yang closed the door and undressed. _Shame I didn't bring spare clothes._

After nearly an hour, Yang entered the hotel restaurant. The majority of the tables were cleared except for the one Blake was sitting at and a young man who appeared to be on a business trip, judging by his collared shirt and khakis. The blonde walked over to Blake, who was using her scroll with headphones plugged in. She looked up as Yang scooted next to her in the booth. The blonde swore that she heard Sun in the headphones scream something along the lines of "No Luca!" but she couldn't be sure. Blake paused the video and put her scroll down.

"You took your time." She gently lifted the brawler's head off of her shoulder.

"You have no idea how hard it is to deal with this much hair." Yang placed her head on Blake's shoulder once again, this time the faunus simply sighed and accepted that the blonde was not going to give up.

"Why don't you just cut it?" Yang stood up to mock offense. The second she did, Blake darted out of the booth and dropped down into one of the chairs which sat across on the other side of the table.

"You think you can get away from me that easy?" Yang grinned devilishly as she sat on the lap of Blake, who tried unsuccessfully to push her off. "You just made it worse for yourself kitty cat."

"Yang, get off please." Blake said firmly.

"Sorry, I was just messing around. I didn't mean to make you mad." Yang stood up and slid back into the booth across from Blake.

"It's ok, but the other guy is staring at my ears and it's making me uncomfortable." Blake glanced at the other patron, who quickly moved his eyes to the newspaper in front of him.

"I'll talk to him." Yang stood up and began to walk over to the man.

"Yang, don't." Blake placed her hand on the blondes wrist, but she simply shook it off.

"I need to do this Blake."

"Just don't hurt him. For me." Yang nodded and resumed walking over.

"Hey man, do you have a problem with faunus or something? What's your deal?"

"N-no. Not at all. Sorry for staring. I just didn't expect to see any of their kind here, since it's a higher class neighborhood." Yang's hands clenched.

"And why is it that you would not expect to see 'their kind' here? Just because she's a faunus doesn't mean she's poor." Yang spat out, growing even angrier.

"I didn't m-mean to insinuate anything about your girlfriend. I'm sorry ma'am." The stranger stammered as he tugged at his collar, beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Oh, I believe you did mean to insinuate." Yang leaned closer to the man, who was already on the edge of his seat. "Also, we're not dating." _Yet_

"I'm sorry, is there a problem here?" A man in a suit walked over from the entrance.

"Yes, actually. This man here was making generalization about faunus that was frankly offensive to both me," Yang nodded towards Blake, who had moved to stand next to her. "And my friend."

"My apologies ma'am, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Yang nearly punched the both of them in the face, but held back for Blake's sake.

"You're asking **me **to leave? Not the man who was being racist?" Yang was incredulous at the man's response. "I would like to speak to your manager."

"I am the manager. Yes, I am asking you to leave. This man was simply enjoying his breakfast and you went out of your way to harass him."

"You know what? I would be happy to leave. In fact, don't expect to see either me or my friend again. Come on Blake, let's go." Yang turned to leave but heard an impact followed by an exclamation of surprise and pain. She turned around to find the manager on the floor and Blake massaging her hand.

"Faunus whore!" The man spat blood towards Blake.

"Oh man, I think I feel a little dizzy." Yang poorly faked dizziness as she wobbled over to the manager. "Oh man, I'm gonna fall over." Yang 'fell' but caught herself, her hand having accidentally formed into a fist. Luckily she was able to slow herself before she hit the ground using the table next to her. "I suggest buying better tables. These break in half if someone catches themselves with them. Have a nice day."

"Well, that was a thing." Blake said once they were outside.

"Hey, that's my line!" Yang crossed her arms in mock indignation before breaking into laughter. Blake soon joined her.

"Yang, thanks for sticking up for me. No one has ever done that for me before."

"Of course, you're my girlfriend after all." Yang's face flushed in embarrassment as she realized what she said.

"I like the sound of that." Blake replied slyly and hugged the blonde. She gave her a quick peck on the cheek before letting go.

"So, are you alright with this now?" Yang questioned. She was happy at the change of mind but didn't want to make Blake feel like she was being forced into anything.

"More than alright with it. Come on, let's get back to the dorm. We might have to wait a little while before we can hop on an airship though."

The pair ended up not waiting at all, the first rounds beginning at 6 o'clock which was the time they arrived. They sat in silence with their hands interwoven the entire time. The only other people on the airship other than the two were the crew, since everyone at Beacon was still asleep. They occasionally glanced towards the two, but in a different way as to the man in the hotel. They were simply curious about their passengers and not concerned about their heritage. _I can't believe how those two acted. It's ridiculous the way people treat faunus._

When they landed at Beacon, Yang and Blake headed straight to their rooms.

"I need to change clothes so badly." Yang said, Blake nodded in agreement.

When they reached the room Blake unlocked the door and opened it as quietly as she could in order to avoid waking their other teammates. Yang almost shouted in surprise by what she saw in Weiss' bed. The heiress and her sister were curled up together and were sleeping peacefully. _I always knew Ruby was a big spoon._ Yang thought to herself, almost causing her to burst into laughter. She managed to keep it down to a quiet giggle however and quickly grabbed her exercise clothes.

"I'm going to hit the gym for a few hours." Yang's stomach rumbled, reminding her that she never got to eat at the hotel. "Okay, maybe I'm going to hit the cafeteria. _Then_ I'll hit the gym."

When Yang entered the cafeteria, she was surprised to see Jaune and Pyrrha already there, seeming to have both just woken up.

"Sup lovebirds!" She yelled across the room, startling the both of them.

"Yang please, it's still way too early for that." Pyrrha muttered into her food.

"Oh don't be like that!" Yang plopped down in the seat next to her. "Anyways, why are you two up so early anyways?"

"Jaune and I decided to start training early in the morning instead of at night."

"Pyrrha decided we should start training early in the morning." Jaune said sleepily. "I objected to the idea quite adamantly." Yang grinned.

"Well, I'm here to eat and as much as I would love to keep pestering you two, I'm starving.

Yang ate quickly, being much hungrier than she realized since she hadn't eaten dinner the night before either. When she finished she waved goodbye to both Pyrrha and Jaune and walked to the locker room. She changed quickly and stuffed her scroll in the arm band she had exactly for that purpose. She plugged in her headphones and selected her workout playlist. A mixture of the Achieve Men along with songs by Jeff and Casey Williams. About half an hour in, Blake joined her silently. They smiled at each other as Yang steadily increased the weight of the machines. Making sure that it was always higher than the weight on her girlfriend's equipment.

"We're going to have to shower again, aren't we?" The Faunus asked, covered in sweat.

"Yeah, but at least we have a change of clothes this time." Yang replied as she went back to the team's dorm.

**Man, those guys were dicks! The manager got what he deserved and the patron was more than a little scared of Yang. As always, hope you enjoyed the story.**


	9. Chapter 9: Busy Bees

**Busy Bees. Get it? Cus you know, pollination and bumblebee. Okay yeah maybe it was a bit of a longshot. Chapter names are hard guys, just look at chapter 2 for proof. Sorry that this chapter is so late. I've been having some issues with my computer and only became able to post it recently.**

When the two got back to the room, Yang immediately threw open the door.

"Good morning everyone!" She shouted into the room, startling Ruby and Weiss awake.

"Yang!" Ruby sprinted into her older sister's arms. "Gross, you're all sweaty." She immediately regretted her enthusiastic greeting.

"Just got back from the gym. Sorry for ditching you two yesterday." Yang said while she grabbed her clothes from the dresser next to her bed.

"You had a reason, so it's okay. Blake on the other hand is the one I'm more curious about." A recently woken up Weiss questioned. "You looked at your scroll and took off in the middle of dinner. Where did you go?"

"Pyrrha told me where Yang was staying. Sorry for not saying anything, I was just really worried." Blake looked down at her feet, embarrassed at her actions and annoyed with herself for making her teammates worry.

"Where did you even sleep?" Weiss continued.

"A bed much more suited to two people than the one you and Ruby used." Yang's eyes teared up from laughing at Ruby and Weiss' expressions. "You two are too easy to tease." She said as she paused her laughter briefly before continuing with gusto.

"Well, since Yang seems to be busy, I call showering first." Blake declared to the groans of the other three.

When Yang had finally stopped laughing, she turned to Weiss.

"Weiss, I need to talk to you in the hallway." Weiss gulped.

"Can't we just do it right here?" She looked to Ruby desperately, who simply shrugged.

"Come on ice queen." Yang grabbed the silver-haired girl's wrist and dragged her out into the hallway.

"What do you want to talk about?" Weiss asked nervously after Yang had shut the door.

"You dating my sister." Weiss swallowed again. "I get that things can go wrong in relationships, so I'm not going to tell you to never hurt her or anything. That's just ridiculous and cheezy. I will tell you however, that if you fuck with her intentionally I will come after you and I will not be happy."

"Of course Yang. I would never do that to her." Weiss relaxed slightly, the conversation going much better than she originally expected.

"Good. She's never dated anyone before, at least as far as I know, so go easy on her. You tend to be a bit… critical, which is putting it nicely. Now let's head back in, I think Blake is done with the shower."

Blake had indeed finished her shower and was just exiting when the two returned to the room. Yang and Ruby locked eyes, narrowing their gazes as a long and unspoken conflict between the two was about to break out. Yang sprinted towards the open door as faster than seemed humanly possible, but even so Ruby was there first.

"No fair!" Yang pouted. "Semblances are cheating."

"Says you!" Ruby yelled back.

When both the girls had finally finished showering, Weiss finally got her turn.

"Hey Ruby? I want to talk to you about something. Preferably alone." Blake threw in a pair of headphones that she had attached to her scroll and began to play music while the other two girls walked into the hallway.

"Ruby, if you and Weiss are going to start dating I want to know a few things." Ruby's face flushed and she looked down at her feet. "First off: is this just a fling or do you think it'll be more serious?"

"Well, I like Weiss a lot. She's nice, even though she doesn't act like it sometimes. So yeah, I kinda wanna be serious." Ruby looked up at her sister. Even though her face was still slightly flushed she had a look of determination on her face.

"Okay, second thing: come to me if you ever need any advice about anything, okay? You and Weiss are adorable together." Yang smiled at Ruby who smiled back and gave her older sister a hug.

"You're the best Yang."

"Don't you forget it."

When they walked back into the room Weiss and Blake we're talking to each other while they readied for class.

The classes of the day dragged on, Yang barely kept awake, she nearly fell asleep on several occasions. Once they got to Yang's favorite part of the day. sparring. Glynda randomized the contestants, Yang absent from the pool of possible fighters.

"Cardin and Blake!" Glynda announced once the students had been selected. Yang looked over to see Blake with a sinister smile on her face.

"Blake, how has Cardin been treating you this past week?" Yang had totally forgotten about the student's hatred for Faunus.

"Not nearly as bad as I'm about to treat him." Her smile dissipated and was replaced with a look of intense concentration.

"Don't go overboard." Yang thought of how she had acted against Pyrrha and shuddered at the thought of what Blake could do to Cardin.

"I won't. I do plan on getting a break for Velvet and I for a while though." With that she headed down into the arena, where she calmly unsheathed Gambol Shroud and took up her standard dual wield stance.

"Begin!" Glynda shouted to the cheers of the class.

Blake immediately threw her katana into Cardin's face at the same time as she rushed him. She fired a round nearly point blank, which hit Cardin in the face as he moved to block the attack. She then whipped the kusarigama form Gambol Shroud to his side while slashing horizontally at his neck with her cleaver. Cardin was barely able to block the blow to his throat, a loud clang echoing in the otherwise quiet room.

Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten about the kusarigama that rocketed towards his side. The blade struck him hard, resulting in a thwack that could be heard across the entire room. The crowd had become dead silent since they were all aware of Cardin's feelings towards Faunus and were watching intently, not wanting to miss anything. Cardin clumsily attempted a counter attack after he had taken the hit to the side, but he only hit a shadow clone. Almost as if he expected this, he activated his mace which released it's explosion as it hit the ground. Blake jumped backwards, once again easily dealing with the attack.

"Cat got your sword arm?" Blake winked as she teased the brute.

Cardin's only response was to charge forward and yell as he raised his mace above his head. Blake shook her head before she simply stepped to the side and allowed her over zealous opponent run past her. She threw the kusarigama at his legs, causing him to fall flat on his face. Blake smiled as she placed a foot on his back.

"Don't fuck with me, Velvet, or any other faunus again." She said before giving him a swift kick in the side which resulted in a grunt as the bully curled up into a ball in an effort to protect himself.

"Miss Belladonna is the victor. Watch your language." Glynda accentuated her point with a glare that would make a King Tajitu stop in it's tracks.

"It won't happen again. I got a little carried away, I apologize."

Cardin stood up slowly as he clutched his side. His face was bright red, partly from the exertion of the fight but mainly from his embarrassment and being so completely and utterly dominated the entire exchange.

"Mister Winchester, feel free to head over to the nurse if you feel that it will be necessary." Glynda gestured towards the nurse's office and Carding simply nodded. He tried to take a deep breath but immediately stopped as pain flashed across his face.

"The crack after I kicked him was really satisfying." Blake said as she sat down smiling.

Yang's response was to give her teammate a high five, which caused Blake to giggle.

After class Blake turned to her teammates and excused herself.

"I need to go do something. I'll be right back." She said before heading towards the infirmary.

"What was all that about?" Ruby asked, worried about her friend and teammate.

"I don't know Rubes. Maybe kitty is feeling a little regret after finishing off Cardin."

"He deserved it. He's been harassing Velvet and Jaune all year. He recently started teasing Blake too after she revealed herself as a faunus." Weiss stated.

Yang shrugged and continued towards the dorms, tired because of the classes and her early start to the day.

**TIL don't mess with Blake! Tbh Cardin has always seemed like a really poor fighter to me. He couldn't even take down one ursa. Even Jaune has done that twice (though he had a little help the first time). So, how did you guys like it? Let me know in a review. Or don't. You're an independent woman/man who don't need no man/woman.**


	10. Chapter 10: A Group Excursion

"I'm back." Blake announced as she opened the door to the dorm.

"Hey Blake. Where did you go?" Yang patted the spot next to her on her bed.

"I went to apologize to Cardin. I went a little overboard when I broke his ribs." She accepted the blonde's offer and sat down next to her. "Where are Ruby and Weiss?" She asked as she realized they were alone in the room.

"Studying. For Weiss' sake that better be true." Yang flashed her best sly smile but it didn't remain on her face long.

"What's wrong?" The Faunus slung an arm over her girlfriend's shoulder.

"I've always been the only one she can talk to. Now that her and Weiss are close, I'm worried she won't talk to me as much or be comfortable with telling me about stuff. Especially when it comes to her and Weiss." Yang slumped into Blake, using the black haired girl to keep herself upright.

"Just because she has Weiss doesn't mean she won't talk to you. You'll always be her big sister." Yang closed her eyes and let herself slide down so she could place her head in Blake's lap.

"Yeah, you're right. As always." Yang replied sarcastically, which earned her a playful slap on the hand. "How did it go with Cardin?"

"Well, he was less than pleased to see me, as expected. After he was done using a few choice words which I will not repeat, I apologized kicking him when I could have easily ended the fight. He still didn't seem too pleased about the whole thing though."

"You did kick his ass pretty good." Yang placed the back of her hand on her forehead and sat up, only to jokingly swoon into Blake. "I'm so glad that the person I'm dating is oh so strong, along with being devilishly attractive."

Blake gently directed Yang's face towards her, placing her hand on the blonde's chin. The two lent into one another. The rest of the room seemed to melt away, the kiss being the only thing they had any mind for. That is, until the door burst open.

"I knew it! I so totally saw this coming!" An excited Nora bounced up and down.

"Nora, please don't tell anyone. Yang and I want to tell everyone ourselves." The two now stood in front of the energetic girl.

"Tell everyone what? Saw what coming? I'm so confused right now." Jaune's head peeked around the corner of the doorframe. Blake and Yang both leered at Nora.

"Oh, nothing!" Nora smiled knowingly and skipped back across the hall to her room.

"You guys sure it's nothing?" A concerned Jaune questioned.

"Yeah, we're sure. So, what did you guys want?" Yang replied as she sat down on the bed.

"Oh yeah, we were wondering if you guys would like to come see a movie in town tonight. Originally it was just going to be Pyrrha and I but Nora kind of invited herself and Ren. Since it's no longer really a date, I was wondering if you two, as well as Ruby, and Weiss would like to come." Jaune reddened slightly when he mentioned that the original plan was a date.

"We would love to! Isn't that right Blake?" Blake groaned at the blonde accepting for her.

"Sounds like it'll be fun." She said, despite her previous sign of annoyance.

A couple of hours later team RWBY had all gotten ready. Weiss was dressed formally, as always, but they all had their usual outfits on. Yang had just put on a retracted Ember Celica when they heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" Ruby proclaimed as she raced to open the door.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha said when Ruby opened the door.

Team JNPR were all dressed in their usual clothing as well, except for Pyrrha. The fiery redhead was wearing a plain red long sleeved shirt and some jeans, an outfit that was shockingly casual on her.

"Are you all ready?" Jaune questioned. His answer was a series of nods from every member of team RWBY. "Okay. The movie starts in an hour. I don't want to be late."

Nora was practically bouncing off the walls, even more so than usual. She looked over at Yang and Blake about once every millisecond, which made the pair nervous. Something Ruby seemed to notice but decide to make any mention of it.

When the group of eight had reached the movie theatre, there was only a few minutes left before the movie began. On the way to the area where the movie was playing, a young man walked up to Blake. He had light brown hair and glasses, which seemed to be falling down his nose judging by how often he slid them back up his face. A light five o'clock shadow interrupted his otherwise smooth skin.

"Blake?" The young man asked. "Is that you?" Blake's nodded and lowered her eyes, her face reddened slightly.

"Yeah. Do you mind if we talk away from my friends?" She asked.

"No problem. Good to see you too Weiss." He nodded towards the heiress who nodded back.

The pair walked down the busy hallway, away from the rest of the group who were standing there, all of them incredibly confused except for Weiss.

"Weiss? Who is that? Do you know him?" Yang was worried that something bad might have happened.

"Kind of. He was a part of the group we helped during the White Fang attack." The man gestured to Blake's leg, who smiled and nodded her head.

"Oh yeah, I guess I never really thanked you for taking care of Ruby. I saw the video." Yang turned away from the two, giving them privacy.

"I was worried about her. You would have done the same." Weiss replied casually.

"It's not that. It's that you helped her when I couldn't, so thanks for that."

"Just so you know, I'm right here." Ruby waved her hand in between the two, earning a laugh from Yang and a glare from Weiss that quickly turned into a slight smile.

"Sorry about that. Let's get our seats." Blake said after she had parted with the young man and was back with the group.

Blake's meeting had caused them to miss the trailers, something that Jaune was disappointed about but didn't bother anyone else. The movie started off a little slow, the six protagonists all together chatting away. The movie picked up the pace quickly however when it cut to a battlefield, where all six of the group were fighting together. Every gunshot and explosion made Yang jump slightly, but she simply blamed it on the volume in the theatre being so loud. A nearby explosion rocked the screen and the camera panned over to the aftermath, bodies arranged haphazardly around a crater.

Yang nearly threw up. Her mind returned to the scene at the hospital.

"Yang? Are you in there?" A weak grunt was her reply. "Are you alright? Do you need me to get some help?"

"No, I'm okay. I just need a minute." The blonde replied.

"Could you unlock the stall and let me in?" The door was pushed in slightly as Blake leaned against it. "I told everyone else to wait outside."

"Alright." Yang unbolted the stall door and was nearly knocked over by the assault of a hug from the Faunus.

"I didn't think about your PTSD. I'm sorry, I should have told you that it was an action movie." Blake squeezed even tighter.

"Blake, you're crushing me." The pressure eased but was still significant. "It's alright kitty cat." Yang stroked the girl's feline features, but more for her own sake.

"No it's not. I just wanted to have fun with you and I wasn't able to even get that right." Yang's neck was becoming damp where the Faunus had buried her face.

"Blake, really. It's alright. I'm feeling better already. I'm learning how to deal with this stuff." Yang did her best to reassure her girlfriend, even though she was still feeling shaky herself.

"Okay." Blake sniffled. "Let's go back to the dorm." Yang nodded and the two exited together.

When they walked out the door, Weiss, Ruby, and all of team JNPR were looking at Yang with worried expressions. Yang waved off their questions and worried looks, insisting that she was fine and she just wanted to go back to the room.

When they were back in the dorm, Yang pulled out her scroll and plugged in her headphones. Opting to listen to music instead of interact with the rest of her team. After an hour of laying on her bed, she finally fell asleep, despite it still being fairly early. _I really need to fix my sleep schedule._ She thought to herself before drifting off.


	11. Chapter 11: A Friendly Gathering

**Two chapters today to make up for my lack of posting lately. Also, just a heads up: the first section is pretty dark.**

The sound of gunfire and explosions echoed through the endless black. A small circle of light appeared before Yang and illuminated Blake who was covered in blood. Yang knew the blood did not belong to her partner, the faunus was completely uninjured and grinning widely. Her sinister grin gave way to a look of fear as a White Fang flag descended from the sky and wrapped around her. The flag and faunus both burst into flames, causing her to start screaming. The intensity of the blaze illuminated the surrounding area, displaying the destroyed hospital and bodies that surrounded it. Yang tried to force herself forward, intent on the destruction of those who had caused this. However hard she tried, she was unable to move. She looked down at her feet and saw why. Ruby had her arm around the blonde's legs, her other arm a bloody mess.

"Yang." Ruby said, her voice not her own, but Blake's.

"Yang wake up." Ruby let go of her legs and fell limp at her feet.

Yang shot up. Her clothes were soaked with sweat, her face was streaked with tears, and her throat felt raw. She immediately shivered, feeling as if she was about to freeze to death.

"Yang. It's alright. It was only a dream." Blake pulled the blonde close and began to stroke her hair.

"That was a new one." She mumbled into the crook of the faunus' neck, still shaken up by the intensity and how real the dream had felt.

Yang raised her head from the comfort of Blake's neck and looked around the room. Light was filtering through the curtain, which was not doing much to darken the room. Neither Ruby nor Weiss were there. Weiss' bed had been made and Ruby's looked as if a borbatusk had slept in it.

"Where are Ruby and Weiss? What time is it?" The blonde quickly asked both questions.

"Ruby and Weiss went into town. It's 10 A.M. Yang, you slept pretty late, at least it's Saturday. You were tossing and turning all night and you started to scream right before I woke you up. How bad was this one?" Blake looked down at her partner in concern.

"Pretty bad. I don't really want to talk about it right now." Yang gently pushed the black haired girl away and standing up. "I'm going to go to the gym for a while."

"I'll go with you." Blake stood up next to the blonde.

"No. I want some time alone. I'll call you when I'm done." Yang grabbed her workout clothes and headed into the bathroom to change.

Yang moved to the center of the gym and ignored all the other students. She began her usual routine, banishing all thoughts and focusing her mind completely on the physical exertion. She moved her mind into her muscles, feeling the strands tighten in unison. She focused on the burning of lactic acid that had built up. Her increased breathing and heart rate. Still she could not banish the thoughts of her nightmare and so she moved to the weights and continued her workout.

After an hour, she had finally banished the thoughts from her head. She was dripping with sweat and had soaked her clothes once again. Her muscles burned and her chest heaved after the intense workout she had put herself through, adding way more weight than usual in order to focus completely on the activity and take her mind away from the earlier events. On her way to the showers, she saw Ruby heading towards her in her own workout outfit.

"Yang! You're awake. You slept in super late." Ruby said, excited to see her older sister.

"Yeah, I had a rough night." Yang replied as she rolled her shoulders back in an attempt to stave off the soreness she was already beginning to feel.

"Oh." Ruby moved as if she was going for a hug, but then thought better of it seeing the blonde's clothing soaked in sweat.

"Don't be like that sis!" Yang wrapped a very unhappy Ruby in a bear hug.

"Yang! Gross!" The blonde let go and smiled.

"Anyways, I'm going to hit the showers then meet up with Blake." Weiss turned the corner as Yang said this, the heiress also in her exercise outfit. "Ruby, if you don't lift more than her I'll have first dibs on the shower for a week."

"But you always use up all the hot water!" Ruby objected to the back of Yang, who had already headed for the showers.

"Not my problem!" She shouted back.

Twisting the shower all the way to it's hottest setting, Yang undressed as the room began to steam up from the temperature of the water. She stepped inside the shower and enjoyed the feeling of the scorching hot water flowing down her body, which caused Yang to sigh in pleasure. _I'll never understand why Weiss likes cold showers. They're the worst._ Yang tipped her head backwards and allowed the water to wash away all the stress from the previous night.

When she had finished the water had cooled down significantly. _All this hair is hard to wash. You try dealing with it Rubes._ She dried herself off and put on her clean clothing, bundling her dirty clothes into a ball and tossed them into the nearby laundry basket. She pulled out her scroll and brought up her contacts and dialed Blake's number. She did not have to wait long, the girl picked up fairly quickly.

"Hey, Yang. You done?" The voice on the other end asked.

"Yeah. I was thinking that maybe we could head into town. I'm hungry and not really in the mood for cafeteria food. Especially not the lunch they serve here. I swear, they just spray paint mystery meat to make it look nice." This elicited a tiny giggle from the other side of the call.

"Alright. I know this place in town that's pretty good. I'll meet you by the airships." Yang was already on her way there when Blake hung up.

When Yang reached the landing area she immediately spotted Blake and moved over to her. The faunus had not seen her yet so she moved as quietly as possible in an attempt to scare the girl. When she was within distance she lunged, hands in front of her and aimed towards Blake's faunus features. Her hands made contact and she closed them to grab ahold of her girlfriend's ears. Her hands simply closed on air however as the girl in front of her disappeared. An arm wrapped around her neck and pulled her backwards, putting the blonde into a headlock.

"Ooh, feisty." Yang purred.

"Don't sneak up on me." Blake released the blonde quickly and looked down at her feet in embarrassment, affected by her partner's words.

"Like I could if I wanted. There is only one ninja on this team it seems." Yang smiled and turned to board the airship.

When they had both boarded, they were met with jeers from Russell.

"Look what the cat dragged in." The slim boy taunted, eliciting nervous looks from the other students around him who all moved away.

"I'm sorry, do we have a problem?" Blake walked over and looked up into the face of the slightly taller boy.

"Don't you touch me you filthy animal." Russell backed up into the wall.

"I'm not touching you _Russell_." She spat out the name with disgust. "Do you not remember what happened to Cardin?" Russell's face lost all color.

"That's because you're a freak. Just like the rest of your kind."

"Hey Blake, I think I might trip. Would you like to move for a second?" Yang walked up behind Blake, who moved aside and gestured to Russell with her arm. Yang closed her hands into fists and readied a punch.

"Alright! I won't mess with you anymore!" A terrified Russell shouted out.

"Maybe you should pick your fights a little better." Yang winked at the mohawked bully in front of her and twirled around before moving to find a seat.

A large portion of the students watching burst into laughter, causing an embarrassed Russell to run out of the airship.

"Well, team CRDL probably won't mess with us anymore." Blake said as she took her seat next to Yang.

When they arrived into Vale, Blake grabbed Yang's hand and enthusiastically pulled her along. She led her through so many turns that the blonde gave up on trying to remember the way. Eventually she stopped in front of a black metal door with a slit around eye level. Muffled singing and laughter filled the alley which gave it a warm feeling despite the shady appearance of the place. Blake knocked on the door a few times in what seemed to be a pattern. The slit in the door was drawn back after a few seconds of waiting, then closed quickly once again. The door shot open and the sound of singing that had once been muffled was clear to be heard along with the scraping of metal on plastic and the clinking of glasses as the patrons of the restaurant in front of the pair enjoyed themselves.

"Blake! Good to see you again! It's really been too long." A burly looking man who towered over Blake exclaimed.

The man seemed to be at least a foot and a half taller than the girl in front of him and hundred pounds heavier. Those pounds were all muscle however. Yang was impressed to see no mention of fat on his body. His arms were exposed as he wore a tight fitting black tank top. They were lined with many scars, making the man appear even more intimidating than he already did. His pants were simple brown cargo pants, the knees were worn and in many places the color was faded to white. His face however helped to dispel Yang's feeling of unease. He had a smile so warm that the blonde felt instantly comfortable around the man. By far his most striking feature however were his eyes and nose. His eyes were bronze, with smaller than normal pupils. His nose was only slightly raised, fairly flat in comparison to that of a human. It was also black, which contrasted with his fair complexion. Not only that, but it pointed slightly upwards in a V shape and looked similar to the nose of a dog or cat. His teeth seemed to be sharper than normal as well, with his canines being larger than the rest of his teeth by a decent amount.

"Good to see you too, Leo."

"Blake you got rid of the bow!" The large man shouted in excitement. He then turned to the inside of the restaurant. "Guys! Blake's here!" He shouted again.

"Leo, it's not that big of a-" Blake was interrupted by cheers from inside the restaurant which caused her to look at the ground, her face slightly red.

Yang discovered she was smiling, the jolly mood having infected her as well.

"And who might you be." Leo asked, his smile falling off his face as he turned to Yang. "You don't look like a faunus or you at least have a more hidden trait."

"Why would that be a big deal?" Yang looked into the room for the first time and noticed why. "Oh... Right."

The everyone had quieted down and stood up, suddenly becoming serious. Every single person was one kind of faunus or another. Many of them had tails or antlers. A handful of them had the ears of various mammals upon their heads, the variety varying wildly.

"It's alright. She's with me." Blake quickly came to Yang's defense and defused the situation.

Everyone in the room sat down and went back to eating and drinking, although the mood was dampened from the confrontation.

"Uh, I'm not a faunus but Blake is pretty much my closest friend aside from my sister. My name is Yang." She felt incredibly nervous, introducing herself to people Blake had obviously known for a while.

"Name's Leo, though I guess you already knew that. Lion faunus, hence the nose." He extended a hand towards Yang, who accepted the offer. His grip was strong and he smiled when he was met with Yang's own strong grip. "We got ourselves a warrior here!" His laughter boomed and filled the room with warmth once again.

"Blake and I are partners up at Beacon." She replied proudly.

The second the pair was seated, Yang was assaulted with introductions, so rapid that she was unable to keep up. Blake tried to keep things somewhat orderly but failed miserably and eventually gave up. Once the other patrons had calmed down and returned to their seats, a waiter came over to their table.

"Hey Blake. You want the usual?" The waiter's small red fox ears twitched in a fashion similar to the way Blake's react, only faster and twitching more often.

"Yeah, thanks Ash." The young waiter smiled widely. "Good to see you again Blake. I'm off in an hour, you think maybe you would wanna-"

"No, she wouldn't." Yang interrupted him, recognizing the request for a drink. This earned her a leer from Blake.

"I can answer for myself. No need to be rude." She turned back to the waiter. "No, but it's sweet of you to ask." The waiter sighed and turned to Yang, almost as if he had expected this result.

"What about you? What would you like?" The waiter asked Yang somewhat nervously.

"I'll have a cheeseburger. Sorry about being so rude." Yang apologized.

"It's alright. She never says yes anyways." The waiter was already smiling again, having recovered quickly. He took their menus and left, telling the pair that their food would be out shortly.

"How many times has he asked?" Yang stifled a small giggle.

"I've lost count to be honest." Blake smiled. "It's kind of cute though." The faunus winked playfully at Yang.

Their food did indeed come quickly and it's arrival ended all conversation between the two. Yang received a burger that was nearly the size of her face and devoured the majority of it, thoroughly enjoying the taste. Blake had a large plate of a variety of fish, which she also ate the majority of. Yang nearly made a joke about cats, but instead opted to keep eating the delicious food that was in front of her.

"So, how long have you been coming here?" Yang asked once she was finally satisfied.

"Ever since I came to Vale. I stumbled onto the entrance when I was sleeping in the alley one time. I was totally broke, having left what little money I had behind when I quit. I walked over to the door and mimicked the knock I had heard the group in front of me use. Leo answered and refused me service since he didn't think I was a faunus. I was desperate enough to reveal my secret and in return they gave me a place to stay and food to eat. They were my first real friends I ever had."

"How long has it been since you were last here?" Yang said in an attempt to steer the conversation into a lighter direction.

"About two months I think. I've been busy." Blake replied

The conversation stayed lighthearted and pleasant for the rest of the night. The two shared many laughs and smiles, along with a few drinks that were provided by other patrons who were happy to see Blake having returned. After a couple of hours the pair announced their departure and were escorted out by the warm singing voices of the others.

**So, a lion faunus always seemed interesting to me. We've all seen wolf faunus but I don't think I have ever seen a lion one before. As always if you enjoyed let me know. If you didn't enjoy also let me know, along with why. As long as you're polite I won't be offended**


	12. Chapter 12: Hitting The Beach

**Holy shit. I am at 4K views, 35 follows, and 20 favs as of writing this. This is so much larger of a reception than I anticipated, especially for my first post on the site. Massive thanks to everyone who has kept up with the story. This chapter ended up pretty intense, so I'm changing the rating to M just to be safe. As always: enjoy!**

"Look, it's Blake!" A voice shouted from the crowd that was near the airport.

Blake sighed and started to walk away, but was stopped by Yang. The blonde had blocked her path and gestured to the small group of teenagers that approached.

"Talk to them. You said you wanted to be a positive image for the faunus, right? Be that now." Blake groaned, not wanting to have to deal with people who treated her as a hero.

"Hey, you're Blake, right?" One of the boys asked. "I saw you in that video. You were amazing." Blake shrugged.

"I was doing my job. I'm not a hero." She replied, annoyed at their reverence.

"You saved all those people though! You are so awesome!" Blake lunged forward and grabbed the boy by the collar. She lifted him off of his feet and pressed him against a nearby wall.

"Have you ever killed someone? Seen a person's eyes lose all life as they become a bloody mess? There is nothing heroic about that. Even if they were terrorists, they had families. Children, parents, brothers and sisters, friends. Tell me, what the fuck is so heroic about that?" She snarled as she released his collar.

"My mom was one of the people you saved. Not only the bad guys have families you know." The boy straightened his shirt and walked away.

"Blake, I'm sorry." Yang pulled the faunus into a hug. "I didn't know you felt that strongly about all this."

"It's alright. I just hate when people glorify war. It reminds me of myself when I was younger. I was so idealistic, ready to fight for what had been drilled into my head as right." Blake slumped her shoulders and fell into Yang, letting the blonde hold her up instead of her own legs.

"Look, let's just get-" Yang was interrupted mid sentence by someone running into the pair. "Hey! Watch it!" The man ignored her call and kept running.

Yang's grew nervous when she noticed that the man was uniformed. He had unslung his rifle and was sprinting full speed across the terminal. A group of soldiers in dress uniforms also started sprinting next to him, recognizing something was wrong.

"Yang! Call your locker. We need to follow and see what's going on." The blonde was already on it and had punched in the correct code on her scroll.

Metal smashing into stone signified that her order had been responded to and she quickly grabbed her weapons. A series of crashes filled the air as the various students of Beacon did the same, calling their own gear in reaction to the events around them. The city alarm began to sound and everyone who was neither a student nor soldier froze in place.

"Please head to the the nearest designated shelters in an orderly and calm fashion." The loudspeaker instructed.

Plumes of smoke began to appear near the harbor, followed by the echo of gunshots. A nearby bullhead revved up it's engines and prepared for takeoff.

"Blake! Come on!" Yang shouted as she ran towards the craft, making her voice heard over the cacophony of chaos that had erupted.

"Yang, are you going to be okay? You don't have to go you know." Blake had joined her in the interior of the bullhead.

"I do have to go Blake. I can do this." She donned one of the headsets that hung on the side of the recently closed doors. "Pilot, where are we going? What happened?" Blake place the device over her ears as well in order to hear the reply.

"Beach next to the docks. White Fang are attacking again, but this time they're not taking any chances. They got Paladins and airships."

"Paladins? They had more of those things? Just how big _is_ the White Fang?" Yang asked, only half expecting an answer.

"I knew they were large, but I never knew they were this big. We always operated in cells, cut off from everyone except when we received direct orders. They must be throwing everything they have at this one." Blake replied.

"We're also getting reports of attacks from inside government buildings. It's a god damn coup attempt." The pilot added. "We're almost at the docks. It's going to be pretty hot down there. Take care of yourself."

The various pings and pops that filled the interior of the craft signified that they had been noticed and were definitely unwanted. The doors slid open and revealed a sight that made the pair freeze. Lines of Paladins had formed in the waist high water and were firing non stop into the mass of soldiers that were underneath the girls. Small groups of White Fang charged across the beach, firing their weapons as they ran. Some did not appear to be armed in any way and simply rushed soldiers. Yang spotted one in particular who was sprinting full speed towards a group of soldiers even though he appeared to have no weapons. Two of the soldiers turned and began to fire at him, but it was too late. Even though they shot off one of the man's arms, he didn't even miss a step. He grabbed his chest and pulled his hand away, in it a collection of rings with small protrusions. The man exploded, along with the group of soldiers who he had been charging. Yang forced herself to look away from the scattered remains and instead look underneath her at the approaching ground.

"Go! Go! Go! Get out!" The pilot yelled in their ears and they complied, dropping into the sand and quickly finding cover in a crater. Yang looked to the craft they had just exited and saw the left engine explode. It spun and tilted downward, hitting the ground and exploding from the dust reserves that were on the ship.

"Push them back! Get these fuckers off the beach!" A man stood and screamed, spittle flying from his mouth along with clumps of sand. "Huntresses, finally." He said as he noticed the pair of girls in the crater next to him.

The sound of gunfire and explosions was deafening. A large man dropped to his stomach in between the two girls and began to fire his large support weapon, painting the area in front of him with dust rounds. Yang moved around him, burying herself in the sand to avoid the rain of destruction that surrounded them. Airships marked with the head of a Grimm and painted white zoomed past, followed by other groups of airships which were painted grey. Another wave of bullheads descended and almost as quickly as they came shot away. Another thunderous roar filled the air, accompanied by the beach in front looking as if it had exploded into sand in front of them. Yang looked over her shoulder to see Coco unleashing hell, sweeping her weapon back and forth across the beach. Her shoulder jerked back and a spray of blood flew into the air. She immediately regained her grip on the weapon however and resumed firing, her face contorted in pain. A massive figure rushed from behind her along with a smaller red one. Yatsuhashi screamed as he charged across the beach, his huge stature knocking aside anyone who got in his way. He swung his weapon in front of him, wreaking havoc on the White Fang's lines. Fox followed, finishing off any who had been left behind. A streak of red followed by rose petals shot past Yang and Blake, followed by a series of white glyphs and a streak of white. At their feet the pair saw a series of white glyphs for them. Yang looked to Blake and nodded, screaming as she charged, her speed augmented from the assistance Weiss had given them. A group of Paladins turned to face the threat, but were quickly turned into plumes of flame. Yatsuhashi gave a quick thumbs up while looking behind him before continuing. Ruby had become a maelstrom of death, destroying anyone close to her and a few that were farther away. Weiss quickly disabled a paladin that was stood on the beach, shoving her blade into it's knee joint and causing it to fall over before plunging Myrtenaster into the cockpit. Gambol Shroud whipped around, slicing through opponents with ease.

"Bumblebee! Paladin!" Ruby commanded, yelling over the commotion.

Yang grabbed the object that flew towards her and began building up momentum as she flew in circles around Blake. Aiming for the nearest mech, she released her grip and rocketed forward. A dust round hit her arm and passed through. Yang ignored the pain and uses it to fuel her aura. She collided with the machine and grabbed onto the front. She ripped the left arm off and dropped down to the ground. She used it as a club and swung as hard as she could at the paladin, rocketing it backwards into the water. Blake was next to her, defending her partner from an attack she didn't even see coming. A pink explosion detonated on another nearby paladin, followed by a girl caving in the cockpit of the mech with her hammer. Blake yelped out in pain and dropped to the ground, holding her shoulder. A White Fang member stood nearby, aimed at the girl on the ground and ready to finish her off. Yang rushed him. The man walked steadily backwards while firing, but stumbled over one of his comrades. The brawler felt a pain in her stomach but ignored it. Yang turned around and saw a path of hot, uneven glass on the beach leading from a large circle of fire which ringed another area of glass, marking where she was stood earlier. She rushed over to Blake, who had already stood back up and continued to fight.

"Come one! Let's get you out of here!" Yang shouted to the injured girl, who nodded her head and turned towards advancing friendly lines.

"Medic!" Yang shouted out at the top of her lungs. A soldier in red armor with a cross on his chest sprinted over after hearing the call.

"Come on you two! Follow me!" The medic ran back to the edge of the beach and vaulted the low wall. Yang and Blake both followed his example and joined him in the relatively safe position.

He moved towards Yang with his kit in hand, attending to the blonde first.

"What are you doing? I'm fine!" Yang protested as she pulled away. "Treat her first!"

"Ma'am, you have a hole in your stomach. Your friend will be fine. We need to get you to a surgeon." Yang looked down and was surprised to find that she did indeed have a gunshot to her stomach. She suddenly experienced a wave of pain that threatened to take consciousness from her as she came down from the adrenaline high of the fight.

The medic patched her up as best he could before he attended to Blake. As he was helping the faunus, an explosion blew apart the wall next to them, accompanied by the screams of the men who had been sitting there.

"Fuck! Get to the nearest hospital you find. Blondie, when they ask I gave you a shot of morphine." The medic sprinted to the site of the explosion and began attending to those who had been in it's radius.

The two moved even farther back from the fighting and into a nearby building.

"You two looking for the hospital?" A woman in a medic uniform asked.

"I guess." Yang replied.

"Holy shit." She said as she noticed the extent of Yang's injuries. "Faunus girl, help me get her on a stretcher." Blake forced down her annoyance at being called by the nickname.

"I can walk!" Yang objected as she took a step forward. Her statement was immediately contradicted as she doubled over in pain.

"Uh huh. I'll get a stretcher, though it looks like I'll have to do most of the lifting." She nodded to Blake's arm. She left and quickly returned with a green stretcher that she unfolded. "All right, grab her legs I'll get her arms. One, two, three!" They lifted her in unison and quickly placed her onto the stretcher.

Consciousnesses finally left her as she was picked up. Yang screamed in pain and black took over her vision.

**Yang has been hurt again! Man, she really gets into the thick of it doesn't she. But when she turned the sand to glass after seeing Blake get hit? Bad. Ass. Anyways, hope you enjoyed!**


	13. Chapter 13: New Friends

**The story continues! Small note about the slowdown in updates at the end, for those who want to read it. Didn't want to have a wall of text before the story. Enjoy!**

Yang's eyes fluttered open and darted around the room, taking in the familiar sight. _Oh, fuck. That's right. I got shot again._ Yang remembered. She her right hand to her stomach. She remembered the pain that crashed over her at her sudden movements during the previous incident and so she was cautious to not hurt herself again. When her hand reached the wound, a rough fabric met her fingers the fabric was slightly damp with what Yang assumed to be sweat, since she had stopped bleeding. The door creaked as it was pushed aside slowly.

"Ah, Miss Xiao Long. Good to see you awake." The nurse jotted down something on her scroll before walking over. "Are you in any pain?" She asked, looking down at her device once again.

"No. How long have I been out?" The blonde was scared to hear the answer, her previous injuries had cost her a significant chunk of time.

"It's been almost six hours." Yang sighed in relief.

"What's the damage?" Yang tilted her bed upwards, allowing her to sit up without hurting herself.

"Well, a round impacted your abdominal region. Luckily it missed your stomach. If it had hit anything significant, you would have been in much more danger." Yang sighed in relief once again.

"What about the beach?" She suddenly grew worried for Ruby and Weiss, but didn't say anything about it to the nurse.

"The battle is over. The capitol building was destroyed in the attacks that took place in the city as well as a few other government structures. Other than that, the White Fang were stopped on the beach and never crossed it."

"All right. Could you hand me my scroll please?" Yang gestured to the table beside her bed and the nurse obliged. "Thank you. I would appreciate it if you gave me some privacy now." The nurse allowed her the luxury and left the room, with the condition that Yang would call her in once she had finished.

"Hey, Blake. It's me." Yang said once the call was accepted.

"Yang! How are you feeling?" Blake sent a request for video to be added, which Yang accepted.

"I'm fine. How are you three doing?" Yang soaked up every detail of the girl on her screen.

"I'm good. They put my right arm in a sling, but the doctors said I'll make a full recovery soon. Ruby had a few scratches but that was the worst of it. Weiss had a minor concussion from being thrown back from an explosion, so no physical exertion for her for a little while. She'll be fine too though, so no worries."

"Good to hear everyone is going to be alright." Yang noticed Blake's face express a flash of worry. "What's bothering you, Blakey?"

"Are you alright Yang? Mentally, I mean." Blake's eyes flicked across the screen as she searched the brawler's face for a reaction.

"Yeah, I think so. I guess I won't know for sure until I'm out of the hospital, but I'm going to get help while I'm here."

"How will you afford that? Weiss might not bail you out again." Blake froze as she finished her sentence, realizing her mistake.

"Wait, what? Weiss payed for my therapy?" Seeing as only one of her friends had the resources to be an 'anonymous benefactor, it made sense, but Yang was still confused. "How did she find out?"

"Uh... I kinda saw a piece of paper sticking out of your pants pocket when you were in the shower and told the rest of the team about it and it was the referral. Weiss gave the school all the money for the therapy and told them to let her know if you needed to start paying more." Blake flushed slightly at her admittance of telling the team Yang's private information.

"Tell Weiss I said thanks. There's no way I would be able to afford the bills, even with Beacon covering hospital costs." Yang was mildly annoyed at the breach of privacy, but she also figured that her team deserved to know anyways. "Anyways, I've gotta go. See you tomorrow?"

"As soon as I can make it." The faunus had her mind set on seeing Yang. Nothing got in the way of something once Blake had set her mind to it.

The two said their goodbyes and hung up. Yang set down her scroll on her lap and closed her eyes momentarily before beginning the onslaught of medical questions that were to come. She called the nurse back into the room. Once the woman had finished her questioning, Yang allowed herself to drift back into sleep.

The next morning, Yang felt completely drained. Her nightmares had struck worse than ever and kept her from getting any decent sleep. The blonde pushed herself out of bed and carefully began to stretch in an attempt to shake off the sleep that still wound it's fingers around her body. She was careful not to strain her abdominal area and left arm, fearing any tension would cause a spike of pain. Since the blonde's injury was much less serious than the previous, she was able to avoid any serious pain. Yang glanced at her scroll and started when she saw the time. _I slept until 11! The hospital therapy started half an hour ago! _Yang quickly dressed and threw open her door, startling the nurse who was walking past.

"Sorry!" She called over her shoulder as she ran to the room where the support group was taking place.

When she reached the room, she burst through the entrance, surprising everyone inside.

"I'm assuming you're Yang?" The woman dressed in white said as she stood up. "My name is Jenny. Glad you could make it." She reached out her hand and offered it to the blonde, who accepted the offer.

"Sorry. I slept in really late." The doctor simply smiled in response.

"John, please continue from where you were at before you were interrupted." Jenny gestured towards a large man who was sitting on a chair that looked too small to hold his massive frame.

"Well, we were on the beach. I had just gotten hit and my best friend started to drag me back to a medic. One moment I was looking into his eyes, the next his head was gone. Just like that." He snapped his fingers to accentuate his point. "I didn't feel anything. No emotion at all. I still don't. That's fucked up to me, you know? You don't just watch your best friend die and not even flinch." John looked down at the ground as he finished, not acknowledging the man next to him patting his back.

"Well Yang, since you missed introductions I'll just give you a short intro to everyone here. The man who just finished speaking is Jonathan, but he prefers to be called John. The man patting his back is John's friend, Nathan." She gestured to Nathan, who was about as large as John. The two of them were definitely over six foot tall. They weren't buff, but there was not a drop of fat to be seen on their bodies. "Next to them is Jessica." The therapist gestured to the girl sitting to the left on Nathan. She also appeared to be totally devoid of fat. Her features were angular, giving her a fierce look while still remaining attractive. Her blonde hair was controlled in a tight ponytail. "Yang, go ahead and introduce yourself." The therapist said, gesturing lastly to Yang. The brawler had taken a seat in the circle the chairs had formed.

"As you probably figured out by now, my name is Yang. I'm a student at Beacon academy and I was hit four times. Twice during the air raid and attempted invasion, in the left shoulder and lung. On the beach I took a round to the stomach and the upper left arm. I also have PTSD from the first White Fang attack." Yang looked nervously at Jessica. The older girl was eyeing her intently, sizing her up with her piercing blue eyes.

"So, you go to Beacon?" She finally spoke. Her voice was surprisingly soft and gentle, not matching up with her appearance at all. "You know Jaune Arc?" She leaned forward, interested in the answer.

"Yeah, his team's dorm is right across the hall from us." Yang was confused as to how the girl knew Jaune.

"Jessica Arc. Nice to finally meet you. I thought that you might be the Yang of team RWBY, but I wasn't sure." She stood up and walked over, offering a hand which Yang shook.

"Nice to meet you too." _Jaune has family in the military? Not only that, but an older sister?_ Yang thought to herself.

The therapy session continued, they spoke about their experiences and how they deal with their own personal triggers. They then moved on to ways to avoid those triggers and calm down if they couldn't be avoided at all.

When the session was over, Jessica got up and made a beeline for Yang.

"How is my baby brother doing at Beacon? I haven't heard from him for a while." She smiled, which softened her intense features significantly

"He's doing well. He wasn't the strongest fighter when he came to the school, but he's gotten a lot better thanks to his girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Jessica looked shocked. "How the hell did Jaune do that?" Yang burst into laughter at her shocked expression, eliciting a smile from the other girl.

"It took him a while. Do you know who Pyrrha Nikos is?"

"The fighter? Don't tell me…"

"Yup."

"Way to go little bro, huh?" She was beaming with pride.

"She's been helping him train. He's gotten a lot better. Still not as good as me though." Yang winked.

"Huh, well we just might have to spar sometime and see how true that really is." Yang blanched when she thought back to Pyrrha.

"I don't think that's a good idea." She said, her voice weak.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out." Jessica replied, having noticed Yang's reaction. "We don't have to fight, it's not a big deal."

"It's alright. Last time I fought, I went a little overboard and ended up hurting Pyrrha on accident." The older woman looked surprised, but regained control of her emotions quickly.

"Holy shit, you beat Pyrrha? Maybe we shouldn't spar then." Yang smiled at the good natured jest and giggled slightly.

"Yeah. So, what do you do in the military?" Yang was legitimately interested, as she had the possibility to get some insight into Jaune and his family.

"Well, I'm a corpsman. I'm a killer and a healer, bit of a weird combo. I look at it like I'm saving lives when I take one. That makes it a little easier." She bristled with pride once again as she mentioned that she was corpsman. She seemed to place the lives of others above her own, willing to place herself into danger to help others. _A lot like Jaune._ Yang noted.

"Huntress in training, but you probably already knew that." Yang replied. "Corpsmen have saved my ass a couple of times." Jessica laughed.

"I've saved my own ass before. It's our job, don't worry about it." Yang smiled. "Anyways, I should get back to my room. Visiting hours are soon and I don't want to miss any time with my family."

"Yeah, my friends are coming by too. See you around?" Yang asked as they walked together before stopping where the hallway diverged.

"Yeah. I've got plenty of embarrassing stories about Jaune that I would love to share." Yang laughed once again and waved goodbye before returning to her room.

When she opened the door, she was smothered with a familiar smell and feeling.

"Blake, you're crushing me again." Her voice was muffled by the faunus' shoulder. In reality, she didn't mind that much. She allowed her mind to go blank and fill with the sensation of her girlfriend so close to her.

**Sorry about the delay! I had some serious writers block, but once I forced myself to sit down and work on this I got over it. I'll be posting my next chapter on Friday (US time) because of the shipping week /r/RWBY is having right now. It'll probably be SUPER fluffy, with loads of Bumblebee. So, as always hopefully you guys enjoyed. Leave your thoughts in either the comments of the reddit post or in a review/PM.**


	14. Chapter 14: A Serious Conversation

**In honor of Bumblebee Friday on /r/RWBY, I present to you: Chapter 14.**

**Sorry about the length of this one being a little short, I only had an hour before I had to go to work so I didn't have a ton of time.**

**Enjoy!**

Yang over dramatically gasped for air the second the grip loosened, throwing in a faked weeze for extra affect.

"What... Have you... Done...?" The blonde clutched at her chest and reached an arm towards the ceiling, then swooned into the faunus' arms.

"I'm glad you're okay." Blake stifled a giggle. "I ran into Jaune and Pyrrha. They said they were visiting someone too."

"That, would be Jessica." Yang stood back up. Seeing Blake's look of confusion, she expanded. "Jaune's older sister. Anyway, where are Weiss and Ruby?" Yang was excited to see her sister. As much as she was loathe to admit it, she also looked forward to seeing the Ice Queen herself.

"Ruby went to go find you some cookies and dragged Weiss along. They'll be excited to see you."

"So, what I'm hearing is that I have you all to myself." Yang wriggled her eyebrows, causing Blake to flush red. This response set the blonde over the edge. She couldn't keep a straight face and she stopped trying to fight the massive grin that had formed.

"That's disgusting." Yang turned around in reaction to the speaker behind her. Said speaker had her white-sleeved arms crossed in front of her and bore a pout that would freeze the blood of a lesser mortal.

"Your _Weissy_ stare will not faze me, Ice Queen." Yang licked a finger and placed it on her rear, as soon as it made contact she pulled it back and waved it in the air. "Shit, I forgot that I was so smoking hot. Looks like I burned myself." Weiss rolled her eyes in response and stepped to the side, allowing Ruby passage into the room.

"Yang! You're okay!" The small girl rushed her older sister and entrapped her with a bear hug. Yang yelped in pain when Ruby's arm located themselves around her stomach. "Oh god, Yang. I'm so sorry."

"It's alright Rubes, just please watch where you put your arms. Since the gang's all here, want to go mess with Jaune?" Yang suggested, leaving Blake sighing and Weiss and Ruby confused. She didn't leave them much time to think about the entire situation before she was already out the door. "Hey nurse, can you direct me to Jessica Arc's room?" She whispered into the ear of a woman who had just walked past. The nurse was happy to oblige, and gave Yang quietly relayed directions. With her recon complete, Yang took off.

When she reached Jessica's room, she knocked on the door. It was answered by a confused looking Pyrrha who had a suddenly very pale Jaune behind her. Yang walked into the room and winked subtly at Jessica, who instantly understood what was happening. Pyrrha noticed this exchange and quickly took in the situation as well.

"Jaune! Who is this? Are you cheating on Pyrrha?" Yang walked up to the boy and grabbed his collar in both hands.

"Yang! No, it's not like that! I can explain!" Sweat began to form on the assaulted boy's forehead. "Calm down!"

Jessica and Yang burst into laughter simultaneously, causing Jaune's face to go a deeper shade of red than his girlfriends hair. Blake was smiling and Pyrrha was attempting to hide a giggle, Weiss caught on quickly but Ruby was still confused.

"Why are all of you laughing? Why is Jaune so embarrassed? Did I miss something?" Ruby's eyes darted from each person in the room, searching for answers.

"Jessica, Jaune's sister. I take it you're Ruby? Jaune has told me a lot about you. A. Lot." Yang and Jessica began laughing again as Jaune turned and even deeper shade of red, something not thought humanly possible. Jessica walked over to Yang and the two high fived. "Yang, that was perfect."

"I've had a lot of practice messing with people." Yang returned the smile Jessica was radiating.

"Great, now there's two of them." Weiss' tone of voice was ripe with annoyance, but the slight smile on her face gave her away.

"Come on Weiss, don't give me the _cold shoulder._" Yang's comment elicited a groan from everyone in the room except Jessica, who gave her counterpart another high five.

The group excitedly told jokes and shared stories along sith simply enjoying each others company. Jessica had a wealth of stories to tell, particularly about Jaune's childhood. Of course, these stories were all less-than favorable towards Jaune's social standing. Eventually, the conversation turned towards the injuries that Yang and Jessica had received.

"Well, I got hit dragging someone off the beach. Pretty much directly in the left armpit, the bullet thankfully missed my shoulder and lungs. A few centimeters to the right and I probably would have died. Thankfully I was able to make it back with the other guy still with me." Jessica responded to Blake's inquiry.

"What about you, Yang?" Pyrrha swiveled to face the other blonde. "I haven't heard anything about what happened to you."

"Well, I got hit in the left bicep while charging a paladin, just like Jessica I got super lucky and it only hit muscle. I also got hit in the abdomen, right here." Yang lifted up her shirt and pointed to the scar the bullet caused. "I kind of don't have any idea when I got shot in the stomach." Yang shrugged sheepishly.

"It's pretty common for people not to notice when they get hit." Jessica pointed out.

"Maybe I can help with that." Blake chimed in. "I had just gotten hit myself by a White Fang member, when Yang stepped in between us. She took a round meant for my head in her stomach." Blake choked up slightly at the thought of her girlfriend putting herself in harms way because of what happened to her.

"That's a candidate for a medal if I've ever seen one. You should ask Ozpin to to put out a recommendation." Jessica suggested, impressed by the brawler's handling of the situation.

"I just did my job." Yang looked at the older woman. "You're the one who should be getting a medal." Jessica smiled.

"I just did my job." Yang smiled back.

"Alright, you two brave soldiers. We should probably head back now, it's getting kind of late." Pyrrha interrupted the two girls and brought them back to the real world.

"Pyrrha's right, we should get back too." Weiss agreed.

"You guys go ahead, I want to talk to Yang in private." Blake said. "I'll catch up to you back at the dorms. Jessica, it was really nice to meet you." Jessica nodded and returned the sentiment.

With that, they said their goodbyes. Everyone promised to see one another soon and bid farewell for the time being. Yang and Blake returned to the room by themselves. Blake closed the door after they had both entered, then began to walk towards Yang.

Blake's wrapped her arms around Yang and bury her face into the blonde's neck. She began to sob into the brawler as she pulled her closer.

"I thought I lost you. This is the second time the White Fang have nearly taken you from me." Blake was hardly able to speak between the sobs that rocked her body. "I don't want you to be a huntress anymore Yang."

Yang was shocked. Her entire life she had been training to become a huntress. Every waking moment she was honing her skills, preparing herself for the life of a warrior. But now, she was being told to stop. To simply _not do it _by the person she cared about most. The blonde gently pushed away Blake. The faunus realized what she had said and ran for the door, intent on escaping. Yang was too fast however, as she reached the door the blonde spun her around and grabbed her shoulders.

"Blake, look at me." She barked. Yang flinched at the intensity of her tone, not intending to threaten her partner. "I'm sorry." Her voice softened. "I can't just stop being a huntress. I've worked towards this my entire life and I will not stop for anyone, not even you. I don't want you to think I'm mad at you, because I'm not." Blake raised one eyebrow. "Okay, maybe I am a little mad. Don't get me wrong, I love you. You and Ruby mean the world to me, but I would never give up on this for anyone."

"It just slipped out, I'm sorry. I don't want you to give up your dreams for me, I'm just scared that I'm going to lose you because of it." Blake sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"One day you might. Hunters and huntresses have dangerous jobs and they can easily lead to our deaths. You need to be prepared for that possibility of losing someone close to you." Blake's tears had slowed, but not yet stopped. She wiped her eyes again. "If I do die, it won't be for nothing. I'll have died protecting other people and doing what I love. I want you to remember that." The blonde embraced the faunus once again, holding her close and flaring her aura slightly to radiate heat. Blake purred and hugged back, tightly but not to the point where she would hurt the blonde.

"I should go." The faunus said, breaking the calm silence that had formed between the two.

"Yeah, it's late and you still have classes tomorrow." Yang released the faunus.

"I'll call you as soon as I can." Blake promised as she walked slowly towards the door.

"I know you will, kitty cat." Yang smiled at the faunus, who smiled back.

Yang flung herself on to her bed and pulled out a pair of headphones and her scroll. She pulled up a video titled 'Geoff's heist' and giggled at the various jokes and mistakes the on-screen group made, before bursting into full on laughter at the end.

**A worried Blake is an adorable Blake. Granted, so is a happy Blake. And a sad blake. And so is a-. Yeah, you get the point. As always, hope you enjoyed!**


	15. Chapter 15: Off Schedule

**Sorry about the lack of updates. I've had a REALLY hard time writing this chapter for some reason. I'm kind of losing steam for this story. I do still plan on finishing it though, so don't worry about that. I also already have some other ideas swirling around in my head right now. **

Yang groaned and pushed herself out of bed. She was still unable to sleep, nightmares rocking her consciousness every time she closed her eyes. A knock on her door informed her of the upcoming check-in with the doctor.

"Come in!" Yang shouted, not bothering to get up and open the door herself.

"Miss Xiao Long, I have some good news." The doctor said as he walked over to her bed. "You seem to have recovered enough for us to send you back to Beacon. Of course, I do advise against any strenuous activity but I believe it is now safe for you to leave."

"Wow, that was fast." Yang was surprised, her last visit lasted much longer.

"Yes, your aura appears to be quite strong and has assisted with the healing process nicely. It really is quite impressive." The doctor jotted down something on his scroll. "If there is anything we can do, please don't hesitate to let us know." The doctor turned to leave.

"When am I leaving?" Yang questioned.

"Oh, of course. You are free to go whenever you wish, we simply need to complete some paperwork and you will be all ready to depart." Yang shot up excitedly, ready to return.

"Let's do it right now." Yang suggested. The doctor pulled up a series of forms and handed his scroll to the blonde.

"You'll just need to sign, here, here, and here." Once Yang had completed the procedure, she handed the doctor back his scroll. "Now, for the next five." Yang sighed in annoyance.

When Yang had finally reached the lobby, it was almost noon, two hours after she had woken up. She signed her name one last time and went to leave. _Oh shit, I never said anything to Jessica_. Yang realised this and excused herself for a moment, promising the nurse that she would be back. The brawler walked to Jessica's room quickly, still wanting to be able to surprise her team with her early release. In her hurry, she nearly knocked over the very person she was searching for.

"Well hi there Yang." A surprised Jessica said.

"Hey, I was looking for you. I have good news!" Jessica waited expectantly. "I'm free to go! All the paperwork is done and I was coming to say bye before I head back to Beacon."

"That's great!" Jessica squealed and embraced the blonde. "Ow, fuck." She pulled back and massaged her injured arm.

"You alright?" Yang was concerned for her new friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Lucky you and your ability to control aura." Yang thought she detected a hint of jealousy behind the remark, but ignored it. Yang smiled back at the grin she received from the other blonde.

"Come visit sometime?" Jessica asked, hopeful.

"Of course. I'll have to bring Jaune along too, we can have some fun teasing him."

"Without a doubt." The soldier smiled, looking forward for new ways to tease her younger sibling. "Maybe you'll get to meet our parents. That could be fun." Yang nodded in agreement.

"Well, see you around." Yang gave the other blonde a quick hug, before retrieving her items from the floor where they had been dropped.

Finally out of the hospital, Yang took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sounds that surrounded her after being trapped in one room. She hailed the first cab she saw, since she didn't have Bumblebee with her.

"Take me to the airship port please." Yang smiled sweetly through the plastic divider.

"You got it. Are you by chance heading to Beacon?" The driver asked.

"Yeah, why?" Yang was confused as to how how knew where she was headed.

"You were standing in front of the hospital with a bag of stuff a couple a days after an attack. Not too hard to figure out where you're headed, eh miss?"

"I suppose you're right." She stared out the window, watching the familiar scenery fly past.

"Not to mention how muscular you look. There's not much fat on yah, besides of course some choice locations." The driver cackled and Yang simply rolled her eyes. Normally she would tease him just for something to pass the time, but right now she wasn't in the mood.

"That's disgusting." Was her only reply. This resulted in another laugh from the front of the cab.

"Well, we're here." The cabbie leaned back over his seat and slid the divider to the side. "I don't know how many people tell ya this, but thanks. I really do appreciate what you hunters and huntresses are doin' out there for us. I'm a vet myself and I know it can be hard to feel like you're doing the right thing."

"Yeah, it really can be." Yang's reply was too soft for the cabbie to hear. She thanked him and handed him the fare before exiting the vehicle.

The usually bustling airport was strangely quiet. It was Tuesday and around one in the afternoon by the time she had finally reached her first destination and everyone was either at work or at school. When she approached the ticket booth, the vendor sat up from his slouched position.

"One ticket to Beacon please." Yang requested, sliding lien into the slit in the window.

"Alright, here you are." The ticket vendor slid the change and ticket back through the slit.

"Thanks." Yang said as she pocketed the items. She moved towards the designated area for her trip, but paused when she heard an all too familiar sound.

The rattle of gunfire began in the distance. Yang tensed, ready to go into action. She calmed herself down when she remembered the military training facility nearby. She sighed and boarded the airship, tired of jumping at every noise.

The airship touched down at the landing pad and Yang hopped out, carrying her meager bag of belongings. Judging by the lack of people, classes seemed to still be in session. The blonde was grateful, since this gave her a chance to settle down a bit before the rest of her team returned. She unpacked her meager belongings and climbed up to her bed and pulled out her scroll.

After a while, the door was opened by a tired looking Ruby.

"Hey, Yang." She said as she flopped down onto her bed. "Wait a minute!" She jumped up onto her feet. "**YANG!**"

She jumped up at the blonde, who narrowly avoided being knocked off the bed.

"Good to see you too Rubes." She laughed, embracing her sister. "Now let me get down and we can talk some more." The brawler untangled herself from her younger sister and dropped to the floor.

"Ruby? Is everything alright?" A concerned Blake shouted from the hallway. "I heard screaming." She finished her sentence as she walked in the room, then paused for a moment. "Yang!" She ran up to give the girl a hug.

While her reaction was not nearly as grandiose as Ruby's, it was an uncommon show of emotion from the more reserved faunus.

"Good to see you too Blake." Yang replied, hugging back.

"When did they let you out?" Blake pulled back and looked into the lilac eyes in front of her.

"Today. I got the news this morning, but it took me almost all day to actually get back."

Yang looked over Blake's shoulder and saw the final member of team RWBY standing in the doorway, her arms crossed in her signature pose. A rare smile danced across her face, but faded quickly.

"Yang, you really should have told us. We would have made proper preparations." Weiss said. "That being said, I'm glad you're back." Weiss smiled again, this time she made no attempt to hide it.

"Good to see you too Weiss."

The rest of the night passed quickly, the team all chatting cheerfully as they had done many nights before. Before long it was time for them to fall asleep. They ended their conversations and retired to their various sleeping areas.

Once the lights had been turned off, Yang felt a figure press up against her back.

"I don't like being away from you." Blake whispered into the blonde's ear, sending a chill down her spine.

"Well, if you want it like that I can make sure you'll be awake all night." Yang said suggestively.

Blake sighed. "Normally, I would take you up on that. Right now though, I'm just really tired. It was a long day for all of us." Yang tried to object, but was cut off by a yawn of her own.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Goodnight." Yang drifted off into a restless sleep, filled with scenes of destruction and bodies that burned on the beach they covered.

When dawn broke, Yang had already awoken. She had not yet moved from her current position, not wanting to wake the girl behind her whose breathing was still calm and even. The blonde slowly lifted the arm wrapped around her waist off of herself and slipped out of the bed. There was a slight rustling behind her, but the breathing did not break it's steady rhythm. _She must have been exhausted, normally she would have been woken up by that._ A still half-asleep Yang thought to herself. She quickly hopped into the shower before Ruby awoke, knowing that if she was not up fast enough there was no way she was going to be the first in.

Around an hour later, a pounding on the door made the brawler jump.

"Yaaaaaaang. Hurry uuuuuup." Ruby whined as she attacked the door to the bathroom.

"I'm almost done, just wait a few more minutes." The blonde replied, drying herself off as she stepped out of the shower. The moment she opened the door a red blur shot past her and into the room she had just been occupying, to the annoyed groan of Weiss and Blake.

When the team had finally completed their morning preparations, they went to class. The day passed quickly and Yang's anxiety grew as the class she dreaded most drew closer: Combat Practice. She nervously peered at the door to the classroom as she worried about another attack. Her thoughts were interrupted however by a voice directly behind her that made her jump.

"Miss Xiao Long." Ozpin sipped from his mug. "I assume since you are standing here you did not receive your temporary schedule?" His eyebrows raised while he awaited a response.

"What schedule?" Yang asked, confused.

"That's what I thought. For the next week you will not have Combat Practice, but you will instead be taking a Combat Medicine class." Yang groaned. "What is it, Yang?"

"Mr. Ozpin, I hate science." She replied, somewhat sheepishly as she remembered the many years of failed courses.

"I am aware of your past experiences in school, but I believe this may help you. Now come, I shall direct you to the correct classroom." He began walking, not bothering to look back at the nervous blonde.

Ozpin pushed open the door and gestured inside the room, which already contained a class in session.

"Ah! Professor Ozpin! It's nice of you to join us today. We were just talking about the dangers of blunt force trauma and how to deal with concussions! Next, we're going to-" Ozpin cut off the rambling young girl off with a wave of his hand. "I got carried away again. Sorry professor!"

"It's quite alright, Misses Siny. This is your newest student, Yang Xiao Long." Yang waved and smiled, forcing herself to give an appearance of confidence. "She will be joining you for the next week." Siny clapped her hands together and smiled.

"Sounds great! Yang, feel free to take a seat anywhere you would like." Yang nodded and obliged, sitting in the closest open space.

Looking around the room, the main thing she noticed was the presence of the color blue. The walls were painted a dark blue, and the floor was tiled with a very light color that was almost white. Siny herself was dressed in a very professional looking suit, which was of course blue. The jacket and pants were a light powder blue and her shirt was a teal color. She wore a tie of cyan, further accenting the various shades of blue. Her hair was black, but turned into a dark blue at the tips. By far her most striking feature however, were her eyes. Her irises were a deep navy blue which turned darker the closer it came to her pupil. They appeared to suck you in and would not let you go until they had absorbed every detail they desired to know.

Yang started when she realized that the teacher was staring her directly in the eyes. The blonde tried to look away, but found herself unable to. The professor stared into her eyes unblinkingly and Yang found herself unable to blink as well. Finally, she blinked. Yang breathed in a gasp of air and the professor looked at her with concern.

"All right, who can tell me the signs of a concussion?" The professor resumed teaching as if nothing had happened.

**Ooooooh. Spooky teacher lady is spooky and mysterious. **

**As always: hope you enjoyed and once again, sorry for the wait. Hopefully the length of this chapter makes up for it a bit.**


	16. Chapter 16: A New Aproach

**Dear lord, it has been long as fuck since I last updated. Well, here it is folks. Enjoy.**

When the class ended, Yang stood up and stretched her legs. Despite her dislike of science, she found herself intrigued by the discussion. They went into much more detail than their basic first aid training. As Yang walked to the door, she heard her name called from across the room by the professor.

"Yang! I would like to talk with you for a bit, if you have time." Siny said.  
"Yeah, sure. What's up?" Yang thought back to the stare at the beginning of class.

"I may be able to help you with your PTSD." Yang looked moderately surprised at the teacher's knowledge. "My semblance allows me to tap into people's minds."

"Go on." She raised her eyebrows, curious.

" Now, if you would close your eyes and hold out your right hand for me. Palm up please" Yang did as she asked and closed her eyes.

There was a slight pressure on the back of Yang's neck as the professor placed her hand underneath Yang's hair. The solid black that had previously absorbed the blonde's sight started to swim and turn to a slightly brighter shade of grey. A sudden flash illuminated everything around her, followed by a large explosion. The bodies strewn about made Yang recoil in terror and recognition.

"Don't be worried Yang, I'm right here with you." Siny alerted the girl to her presence, squeezing Yang's hand in to provide some comfort.

Yang breathed deeply and began to walk forward. The image around her compressed and distorted, bringing the brawler inside of the burning hospital.

"What is this?" Yang whipped her head towards Siny.

"This is your memory. At least, mostly. Memory is a complicated thing, being almost equal parts imagination and the actual recollection of events. However, that is a conversation for a different time. We're going to go through this together. I believe it may help you with overcoming your struggles."

The scene distorted once again, bringing the pair into the building Yang and her friends assaulted. A blurry figure weaved in and out of featureless shadows. Each time the figure connected, the shadows would melt away and disappear. The figure was joined by others and they quickly made short work of the shadowy opposition. The noise of a bullhead filled the air and one of the figures stepped outside.

"No!" Yang yelled, lunging towards the figure and pulling away from the professor.

Everything around the pair suddenly melted back into black, then Yang's vision filled with light once again as she opened her eyes. The lecture hall filled her vision, along with a tired looking Professor Siny. A thin film of sweat coated the two, one from mental exhaustion and the other from physical.

"If you sever the connection like that, I can't maintain contact. The vision collapses and tries to pull my consciousness into yours. I'm sorry, I should have explained that before we started." She sighed and sank into the seat of a nearby desk. "I think that's enough for today. We'll continue tomorrow." She smiled up at the young girl.

"Don't apologize, it was my bad. I can go again, I'm ready." Yang's face was serious, her usual determination showed.

"You may be able to proceed, but I definitely can't. It takes a lot of energy for me to use my semblance and frankly I'm quite tired. Small steps can make a big difference, Yang. There's no reason to rush with this." The woman pushed herself up, she wobbled slightly when she was fully standing. "Your team will be wondering where you are, I suggest you go back to them."

Yang glanced at the clock and gaped at the time. Although it had felt like minutes, nearly three hours had passed. She quickly thanked the older woman before rushing out the door and back to her team's dorm.

The dull murmur of voices betrayed the locations for three of the members of team RWBY. Yang slowly opened the door, hoping to be able to slip into the bathroom unnoticed. Her attempt at stealth failed terribly, as she was immediately assaulted by her sister.

"Welcome baaaaaack." Ruby said in a sing-song voice, holding her sister in her increasingly strong death hug.

"Glad to be baaaaaaack" Yang replied, mocking her younger sister's tone of voice and squeezing her even harder than the younger of the two could manage.

"I surrender." Ruby smiled, releasing her grip.

"Surrender accepted." Yang replied, following suit.

"You were gone for quite a while, what was all that about?" Blake asked, jumping straight to the point as usual.

"Well, I've transferred for the time being into an advanced first aid class. The teacher wanted me to stay back and see if she could help with my PTSD." Yang sheepishly replied.

The blonde shook her head and mentally slapped herself. Everyone knows about it, no need to feel embarrassed. She scolded herself.

"Well, I'm hungry." Weiss stated. "I propose that we all head down to the cafeteria and get some dinner."

As usual, the next day passed by in a blur. The lessons all coalesced into a mush of knowledge that was, for the most part, practical. Yang realised that she should probably pay more attention to that stuff, but mentally shrugged as the bell signifying the end of the day rang. As had been their routine for the past week, Siny waved over the brawler for their after class ritual. She had finally been able to make it through the entire event and reliving it seemed to help to reduce the intensity of the nightmares. She sat down in the front row, prepared for what had now become routine.

"Ready?" Siny asked.

"Mhm." Was the reply, accompanied by a nod of the head.

Yang once again floated into the world of odd shapes and sounds that felt almost real. She winced slightly at the sight of the hospital. The mind numbing fear that was always present, but at the back of her mind started to advance. She focused on her breathing and imagined a square. The lines of the square took form as she breathed, each exhale creating a side and each inhale defining the corner. The hospital faded and the familiar scene of a figure in the doorway appeared. The desire to close her eyes was immense, but she resisted the temptation and forced herself to watch. The figure was thrown to the ground in a motion that almost seemed practiced by now.

"Alright, now what do we do to treat a wound like this in the field." Siny said next to her, almost causing the younger girl to jump out of her skin in surprise.

"Uh, since it was a sucking chest wound we need to create a seal in order to keep any more air from getting in. Keep the pressure on until the medevac arrives." Yang answered, lacking confidence.

"Very good." Siny confirmed her analyses. "I think that should be enough for today."

The vision fell away and Yang's vision was filled with black before she opened her eyes.

"I think we're making some serious progress." Siny smiled, causing her blue eyes to twinkle slightly.

"I think so too. The nightmares haven't been nearly as bad recently."

"Thats great to hear. Hopefully we can get them down to once a week soon, maybe even less."

"Yeah. I better meet up with my team now, see you tomorrow!" Yang had already stood up and turned towards the door before finishing her sentence.

As usual, her team was waiting for her in the cafeteria, chatting away delightedly. Blake was the first to notice her presence, as always, and waved her over with a smile.

"How did it go?" Blake asked as Yang plonked herself down onto the empty seat next to the faunus.

"Pretty well. I treated my own bullet wound this time. That was kinda weird." The blonde giggled as she threw an arm around the girl in black. "Much better." She leaned into the faunus, who attempted to act annoyed but failed.

"Do you think it's helping?" Blake said, faking an attempt to push off her girlfriend's arm.

"Yeah, it really is. At least, it feels like it is. The nightmares haven't been nearly as bad since Siny started to help me out."

The banter between the girls died down as Yang realised how famished she was.

Back in the dorm, the girls flopped down. All of them except Yang had been selected for sparring that day, a physically and mentally draining task. Yang stood in the center of the room and paced for a moment. She turned her gaze over to Blake and shot a silent offer over to the feline. The faunus shook her head and pulled out one of her many novels. Yang sighed internally in disappointment before heading out the door.

Luckily for Yang, it was fairly early in the evening so she decided to swing by team JNPR's room and see if they were up for a night on the town. Or really anything other than sitting and doing nothing. A knock on the door gave the other team a half second of warning before the blonde busted into the room.

"Helloooooooooooooooo." She shouted, into darkness.

She sighed once again, this time externally, before turning around and leaving. What to do, what to do? Yang pondered, resting a closed fist under her chin.

"Ah ha!" She snapped her fingers, startling a passing student.

With renewed vigor Yang set off towards the platform for the airships that served as a ferry between Beacon and Vale.

**Well, hope you liked it and I haven't gotten rusty. Imma be honest, kinda forget I had this thing still goin' and after I got back from RTX, had to write some more. The whole reason I'm doing this is because of Burnie's request for us to create something.**


	17. Chapter 17: A Bright Future

Yang stepped off the airship and set out into town. She had seen a couple previews for a new movie which seemed interesting, so the blonde decided to check it out.

"Yang?" The surprised question came from behind the huntress in training, prompting her to spin around.

"Jessica?" Yang smiled once she recognized the voice. "What's up?"

"I was just out shopping. How have you been?"

"Better. I've started taking a combat medicine class. The teacher has been really helpful."

Jessica smiled, happy to see her friend improving.

"What have you been learning about?" The question launched the pair into a long winded discussion about trauma care. By the time Yang realised how much time had passed, the movie had already begun.

"Well, I was in town to catch a movie, but it started already. Got time for coffee or something?"

"Oh! I didn't mean to keep you from anything." Jessica apologized. "Coffee sounds great. All this trauma stuff can really come in handy." The pair began to head for the nearest coffee shop.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about taking a more medical role for the team. I just want to be able to help out anyone if they need it." Jessica noded, completely understanding.

"That's pretty much why I became a medic. You probably know how big our family is, a lot of us are military. If something were to happen... " Yang nodded in response, thinking back to Ruby's injury. "Anyway, I'm off active duty now."

"Why? Are you alright?" The huntress in training stopped just outside the door to the coffee shop.

"You know better than anyone the kind of shit you see. I'm going to be a nurse in a hospital nearby. It'll be hard, but I can't let all this training and experience go to waste." Jessica opened the door and motioned for Yang to enter.

"Thanks. Yeah, I get that. It's hard, but I don't really feel like I have that option, being a huntress in training and all." The pair ordered their coffee and moved to a fairly private area of the busy shop.

"Sometimes it doesn't feel like we have a choice, huh?" Yang sipped her coffee before nodding in response.

"I guess I never really thought about it before, but yeah. It feels like I have a duty to help and protect people now that I can." The pair sat in silence while they drained the remainder of their coffee.

"Shopping spree?" Jessica suggested with a smile.

"Shopping spree." Yang confirmed.

"You know, I came for groceries. Now look what I ended up with." Jessica accused the blonde while holding the bags from various clothing stores that they had acquired. Yang just shrugged and gave a sly smile.

"You're the one who suggested it."

"Yes, but if I didn't run into you I wouldn't have suggested anything." Jessica retorted.

"Also true. It was a lot of fun, but I better get back. It's almost curfew and they're not exactly happy if you come back late."

"Alright. It was a lot of fun to hang out like this. We definitely need to do this again sometime." The pair embraced, then headed their separate ways.

Once Yang had returned, she plopped herself down on her bunk and closed her eyes.

"Have fun?" Blake asked.

"Yeah. I ran into Jessica and we went shopping." Blake sat on the bed next to the blonde. Yang placed her head onto the faunus' lap. "She said she was leaving the military." Yang felt a sense of relaxation flow through her as Blake's fingers played with her hair.

"Oh?" The faunus asked, surprised.

"She said she couldn't really deal with all the stuff you see out there. I totally get that. Hearing her talk made me realise that I have a responsibility to become a huntress. I can do something very few other people can." Yang moved deeper into her partners lap.

"Sounds like you've decided to stick with this whole huntress/medic thing." A nod confirmed Blake's statement. "Good. I feel safer with you around."

Yang playfully slapped at the faunus' leg.

"I'm tired." Yang stated mid yawn.

Blake's only response was to continue brushing the blonde's hair. Yang slowly drifted off to sleep, her limbs and eyes heavy. A slight smile played across her features as she dreamed of her partner.

Yang reluctantly pulled herself from the arms of her sleeping partner. Despite her attempts to be as delicate as possible, she still woke the incredibly light sleeper. Yang smiled apologetically and mouthed "Sorry". The only response was a smile back and a dismissive wave, before Blake closed her eyes once again. The blonde headed towards the gym to start her morning routine. As she worked, Yang thought about her plans for the day. First she needed to see Ozpin and tell him that she had decided on being a medic and adjust her classes accordingly. After that, classes. Exciting. Once that was done she really had no idea what to do for the rest of the day. Dinner and a movie with Blake might be nice. She shook her head and focused on her body and the task of keeping it in peak condition.

By the time she had finished, Yang was drenched in sweat as usual. She went into the showers and turned the knob all the way to the hot side. The scorching water was a treat she always saved for after a good workout. Plus, the heat helped to prevent her muscles becoming sore and cramped. By the time she was finished, her team had already woken up and gotten themselves ready for the day.

"Morning sis." The brunette said and accompanied the greeting with a hug and a yawn.

"Wide awake as usual I see." The younger of the pair simply stuck out her tongue in response, causing Yang to smile.

"Good morning." Blake and Weiss said in unison.

"You two may be spending a little too much time together." The pair rolled their eyes in synch, causing the blonde to smile again. "Blake, did you sleep okay? I know I woke you up a little early."

"Yeah, I slept fine." The faunus blushed slightly at the admittance of having slept in the same bed as her partner.

"That's good. I need to go see Ozpin about changing my schedule and becoming a medic." Yang turned and headed towards the door. "I'll see you guys after classes." She waved goodbye and headed into the hall.

She turned towards Ozpin's office and began to make her way there. As she turned the first corner, she nearly ran into the exact person she was looking for.

"Professor Ozpin, I needed to talk to you." Yang stated.

"Is this about changing your classes to become a medic?" The headmaster sipped from his mug calmly.

"Yes. When can I get it changed?" The blonde hid her surprise at the teacher's perceptiveness.

"Your new schedule starts today. I was coming to deliver it to you." He handed her a slip of paper with the updated schedule printed out on it.

"Oh. Thank you." A sly smile and a wave were the only response. Ozpin turned and walked the other way.

Yang looked down at the piece of paper she was holding and headed towards the appropriate room.

The mentally exhausted brawler stretched out on her bed. She had been pushed forward into classes for second years and had a lot of catching up to do. It was difficult, but she was determined to do well since it could help save someone's life one day. If it did, all the effort now would be more than worth it.

"Hi Blake." She said to her girlfriend as she entered the room.

"Hey. You look exhausted." Blake sat down on the bed next to the splayed out brawler.

"These new classes are tough and on top of that I'm behind. I had to take a ton of notes." The blonde sighed and sat up. "Although I have one idea for how to relax."

"What would that be?" Blake inquired, curious as to Yang's plans.

"How does dinner with your faunus friends sound?"

"Sounds like a date." Blake smiled and kissed the blonde on the cheek, which caused it to redden slightly.

**AND WE'RE DONE. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Probably going to be coming out with some other stuff, but I'm thinking it'll be an AU. It might even be a continuation of this series, who knows. AU's never get as many readers, but I don't really care tbh. **


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